// Revolution Beauty hands directors £3m in shares despite majority vote to oust them
// This reward is given to them for restoring the company’s listing
Revolution Beauty has granted its top executives shares valued at £3m, despite a majority of people voting to remove them from their positions.
Chief executive Bob Holt, finance boss Elizabeth Lake and other senior executives will collectively receive over 11 million shares worth nearly £3m based on the company’s share price of 26p on Wednesday afternoon.
This reward is given to them for restoring the company’s listing after an accounting scandal caused its suspension from the stock market.
This morning Boohoo accused the beauty brand of a “lack of transparency” for hiding the terms of its free share awards in its annual report, and has set out a list of demands for Revolution Beauty’s management team.
It also wants public confirmation that the proposed terms were not amended following Boohoo’s announcement on 19 June of its intention to vote against the appointments of Bob Holt and Elizabeth Lake at the Revolution Beauty’s annual general meeting.
Boohoo pointed out shareholders were not consulted on the free share awards, did not approve the terms nor approve the appointment of its two main beneficiaries as directors.
“This all demonstrates a lack of transparency and actions which are self-serving and not in the best interests of shareholders,” Boohoo said.
Now, Boohoo wants Revolution Beauty to publish the terms of the grant of the free share awards “without delay”.
Holt and Lake received around £2.1m of free share awards.
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The news comes as Holt and Lake, alongside Revolution Beauty’s chairman Derek Zissman, were ousted from the board by a majority vote of nearly 75% of investors. Yet, they were immediately reinstalled by the remaining director Jeremy Schwartz.
On June 28, Bob Holt bought one million ordinary shares in the business of £0.01 each at a price of 26p per share. As a result, he now owns a million shares, which represents 0.3% of the total shares of the company.
Derek Zissman purchased 100,000 ordinary shares of £0.01 each on the same day, at a price of 30.5p per share. He now owns 130,000 shares, which represents 0.04% of the total shares of the company.
Boohoo has been piling pressure on Revolution Beauty to replace its management. The retailer said it can’t see “how such a board can claim to be acting in the best interests of shareholders, and is instead self-serving”.
It wants to install its own candidates to run the beauty brand: former New Look chairman Alistair McGeorge as interim executive chairman and Boohoo’s ex-finance chief Neil Catto as chief financial officer.
Earlier this month, the group also revealed it wants Ex-THG Beauty CEO Rachel Horsefield to join Revolution Beauty’s board, as well as “undertake a rigorous process to appoint additional independent directors”.
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