2:56 pm, June 22, 2022
Andy Goss has been re-elected as chairman of the board at Vertu Motors despite a sizeable rebellion from shareholders at the firm’s annual general meeting.
Goss kept hold of his position but was made to sweat after 27,892,596 votes were cast against him at the AGM this morning (June 22).
The rebels made up 17.29 per cent of the ballot while a further 26,176 votes were withheld.
Meanwhile, 133,414,520 votes – 82.71 per cent – were in favour of 64-year-old remaining in position for another year.
The rebellion was the largest against any Vertu board member, with chief finance officer Karen Anderson receiving 99.99 per cent of the vote.
Elsewhere, the dealer group’s annual report and accounts were passed by 99.51 per cent of shareholders.
Its remuneration report, so controversial at Pendragon’s AGM, was also voted through without a hitch and backed by 93.8 per cent of shareholders.
However, there was a larger rebellion against the firm’s dividend, which was opposed by 27,793,494 (17.23 per cent) of voters.
It comes after Vertu posted record profits of £80.7m, off the back of a buoyant used car market.
Revenue for the last year stood at £3.61bn with adjusted profit before tax coming to £80.7m – up significantly on the £2.54bn revenue and £24.6m profits recorded in the 2021 financial year.
The firm sold a total of 166,823 cars last year, of which just over 78,000 were new cars.
Speaking to Car Dealer shortly after the figures were revealed, CEO, Robert Forrester said: ‘£80.7m profit before tax is fantastic, and certainly gives an injection of cash into the business, which is always useful.
‘We’ve got a very strong balance sheet, we’ve now got net cash after used car stocking loans are taken into account, which is unique, actually, in our industry.’
The firm also recently announced a £3m share buyback programme, sparking rumours it could go private in the coming years.
Pictured: Andy Goss
