The board split at Humm – previously FlexiGroup – has worsened...

The board split at Humm – previously FlexiGroup – has worsened after company chairman Christine Christian accused its largest investor, Andrew Abercrombie, of “stringing shareholders along” for his own gain.Mr Abercrombie, Humm’s former chairman, owns some 20 per cent of shares and is unhappy about plans to sell the company’s consumer finance business to Latitude for around $300m.Last week, Mr Abercrombie wrote to shareholders describing the deal was “seriously flawed”.Latitude announced its takeover offer of 150m Latitude shares and $35m in cash in January against a challenging backdrop for other players in fintech and personal lending.In an extraordinary move, the Humm majority board last Monday warned
its buy now, pay later unit had been unprofitable in the four months to April 30, and urging shareholders to accept Latitiude’s takeover offer.In a new statement, Ms Christian said it was up to Mr Abercrombie to outline his proposal if the sale of the consumer finance business did not proceed.“It is incumbent upon Mr Abercrombie to outline his plan to his fellow, long-suffering shareholders so that they can make a fully informed decision,” she said in a statement late on Friday.“So far, he has provided no plan on how Humm should respond to the substantial deterioration in non-bank consumer finance sector economics. He is also telling shareholders that Humm would be a consolidator in the sector – but he has not provided any plan for how Humm would realistically seek to fund these consolidation plans and create shareholder value.“Mr Abercrombie is a director of Humm and has a legal and fiduciary
responsibility to all shareholders. He is stringing shareholders along for his own purposes. He must stop trafficking in colourful, emotive language and concern himself with the facts,” said Ms Christian.“If Mr Abercrombie is aware of any bidders prepared to table a competing proposal, he should make this information known to all shareholders now.“Mr Abercrombie is entitled to do what he wishes with his personal shareholding. However, as a director of Humm he has duties to all … shareholders – he cannot and should not only consider his own sentiment.”Humm shareholders will vote on the sale on June 23. To succeed, the deal only needs the approval of more than 50 per cent of shareholder votes cast.
Last week, Mr Abercrombie told The Australian that the directors recommending the sale “have a selfish reason for making it happen”. “They have a vested interest in the share price … I want to drive the value,” he said.The combined Humm consumer finance band Latitude businesses would be the largest of its kind in Australia and will have gross receivables of $8.4bn, some 5 million customers and around 82,000 merchants.Humm will be renamed Flexi Capital Group and retain ownership of flexicommercial.