Sunday 24 March 2019 2:31 pm | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 1:22 am

Provident puts up staunch defence against ‘risky and flawed’ £1.3bn Non-Standard Finance takeover bid

Provident Financial urged shareholders to reject the “risky and flawed” £1.3bn bid from rival Non-Standard Finance (NSF) as the two doorstep lenders continued their war of words.

Provident issued a 47-page defence against its smaller rival’s hostile takeover bid and strengthened its own board over the weekend.

The sub-prime lender added former Sainsbury’s Bank boss Neil Chandler to the board as director of its Vanquis Bank business.

It also announced Skipton Building Society chairman and former Cattles boss Robert East as well as Lloyds Bank veteran and former Wonga director Graham Lindsay as non-executive directors.

Provident also warned that Non-Standard Finance had never undertaken transactions of this size and complexity and that its track record was one of “significant value destruction” – losing 40 per cent of its share value since listing in 2015.

Chairman Patrick Snowball said the company was emerging from a period of instability and the £1.3bn deal would have a “negative and destabilising impact.”

But NSF chief executive John van Kuffeler – a former Provident boss – hit back, branding Provident’s new directors “specialists in failure” and urged shareholders to support its bid “without delay.”

Shareholders owning more than 50 per cent of Provident – Woodford Investment Management, Invesco Asset Management and Marathon Asset Management have already backed the bid.

Remaining shareholders have until 8 May to accept the offer.

Van Kuffeler said Provident, whose shares have dropped more than 80 per cent since May 2017 following profit warnings and regulatory probes, had failed to present a "credible vision" for the future.

NSF has proposed to sell Provident’s car loans arm Moneybarn, which is still under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over how it decides whether applicants can afford loans.