Brightside to replace Martyn Holman

Brightside Group is replacing its chief executive Martyn Holman before the end of the year according to an announcement to the stock exchange.

Brightside will also replace Helen Molyneux with a new non-executive director from the industry. Molyneux spent six years on the board and will retire at the company’s annual meeting in 2014.

The news arrives after a dramatic few weeks for the listed broking group. Shares in Brightside dropped 17.6% in trading last week after it walked away from takeover talks with Markerstudy.

Motor insurer Markerstudy launched a bid to buy Brightside in July, initially offering 27p a share and valuing the broker at £123m.

However, it cut the offer to between 20p and 22p on 6 September, following a negative trading update issued by Brightside on 31 July, which predicted a fall in new policy sales.

Brightside then refused to extend the deadline for making a firm offer, which was 5pm yesterday (17 September), to allow Markerstudy more time to secure debt funding.

The company said in a stock exchange announcement yesterday: “The board believes that a proposed offer price of between 20p and 22p per share fundamentally undervalues the company and therefore sees no need in proceeding with offer discussions with Markerstudy.”

Later that day, Markerstudy issued a statement confirming that the offer talks had been terminated and reiterating demands for explanation of a plan that would boost Brightside’s shareholder value above its offer range of between 20p and 22p.

Markerstudy, which holds an 11.4% stake in Brightside, also wants the broker to explain how it plans to address the sales slowdown detailed in its 31 July trading update.

Brightside said it will explain its strategic direction and growth initiatives in its half-year results, which are released today (18 September).