CPP files injunction to prevent founder Ogston from voting in EGM

CPP Group has issued proceedings in the High Court against its founder and main shareholder, Hamish Ogston.

The former payment protection insurance company, originally founded in 1980 as Credit Protection Plan before it was later fined by regulators, forced to pay £73m compensation and last year rescued from the brink of collapse by investors Phoenix Asset Management, said it was seeking an interim injunction against 42% shareholder Ogston to stop him from overhauling the board at a proposed general meeting.

Schroders and Ogston, who remains the largest individual shareholder but has no management or operational control over the business, have proposed four current directors of the company - being Stephen Callaghan, chief executive Officer; Roger Canham, non-executive chairman; Shaun Astley-Stone, non-executive director; and Abhai Rajguru, non-executive director - be removed.

In their place have been proposed appointing ex British Aerospace and McLaren Group director Sir Richard Douglas Lapthorne at chairman, ex Asda and Cable & Wireless legal counsel Nick Cooper and current CWC and serial non-executive Mark Hamlin to the company's board, though CPP complained they lacked either "experience of the business" and the latter two appeared to have "no prior board-level experience of regulated financial services businesses".

In 2012 CPP was fined about £10m for mis-selling by the Financial Conduct Authority, which blamed Ogston’s company for its central role in the credit card mis-selling scandal.

The FCA said unwitting customers paid up to £84 a year for credit card insurance – even though they would never need it because they were receiving free cover from their bank.

On receipt of Ogston and Schroders' requisition last month, CPP said it was "in active discussions with the FCA regarding the lifting of the voluntary variations of permission to which the regulated entities are still subject".