LONDON (Alliance News) - Gresham House Strategic PLC, an investment company listed on London's AIM junior market, on Friday said it plans to appoint Ken Lever, the outgoing chief executive of Xchanging PLC, as a non-executive director.
Lever's departure from Xchanging followed a GBP44.4 million pretax loss in the first half of 2015 due to a chunky goodwill impairment charge in its procurement division. He has been in charge of Xchanging since 2011. Craig Wilson, previously of HP Enterprise Services, has joined the board of Xchanging and will succeed Lever from January 1, 2016.
On Wednesday this week Xchanging recommended a takeover offer from consultancy Computer Sciences Corp valuing the business at GBP488.0 million.
That offer trumped a GBP412.0 million offer from FTSE 100 outsourcer Capita PLC, which has refused to increase its bid to compete with Computer Sciences Corp. Ebix Inc, a US-based insurance software company, has since said it remains interest in making an offer for the business processing, procurement and technology services provider.
The update came as Gresham House Strategic reported a GBP549,000 pretax loss in the six months ended September 30, versus a pretax profit of GBP730,000 in the corresponding half the prior year, largely due to a GBP2.3 million incentive fee paid to the company's former investment manager.
Gresham House Strategic's investments are now managed by Gresham House Asset Management, the subsidiary of Gresham House PLC, also listed in London.
Previously known as Spark Ventures, Gresham House Strategic now has an investment policy aimed at investing in smaller public companies in the UK and Europe, although a "private equity philosophy" is applied when doing so.
The company raised new capital in August, effected through a placing and open offer, as well as asset swaps with three institutional shareholders, to the tune of GBP14.3 million. Combined with existing cash and the company's investment in IMI Mobile, that gave net assets of GBP36.0 million at the end of September.
That was followed by shareholder approval for the company's change of name, and then the appointment of Gresham House Asset Management.
Shares in Gresham House Strategic were down 0.9% at 830.00 pence on Friday morning.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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