Stobart Group chairman Ferguson remains in place, Tinkler re-booted

Stobart Group revealed that chairman Iain Ferguson received just enough votes at Friday's shareholder meeting to remain in his position.

After totting up the votes from the annual general meeting, the Southend airport owner also revealed that ex-director Andrew Tinkler had been voted back onto the board, but that the board had then taken it upon themselves to vote him back off. Ferguson said that it “would not be in the best interests of the company for him to act as a director”.

The results of Friday's meeting were released at 1921 BST on Saturday and confirmed on the London Stock Exchange regulatory news service on Monday morning.

Tinkler, the company's former CEO, had been sacked last month amid his campaign to oust Ferguson and has been hit with legal proceeding for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. Tinkler has denied the allegations and separately issued proceedings of his own for defamation.

Ferguson won support from a 51.2% share of the AGM vote, while a vote to support Tinkler's re-election as a director won 51.4% of votes.

“The board has yet again shown contempt for shareholders’ wishes,” a spokesman for Tinkler said, raising questions about why there was more than a 24 hour delay in releasing the AGM vote results.

Fund manager Neil Woodford, the company's second largest shareholder, said the decision to dismiss Tinkler was “truly appalling behaviour” that “treats shareholders’ wishes with utter ­contempt”, the Telegraph reported.

Ferguson told colleagues he will stand down before next year’s AGM, Sky News reported, with the company declining to comment.