Tinted: LV chief executive Mark Hartigan (pictured), and chairman Alan Cook remain in their respective roles
LV members and MPs have called for a shake-up of the mutual insurer’s board to ensure it is set fair for the future.
The life insurer’s chief executive Mark Hartigan and chairman Alan Cook are still in their roles despite failing to push through a sale to private equity shark Bain Capital last week. Hartigan and Cook were also supported by other members of the board. They are still in office.
Alison Hutchinson is one of these directors. She also serves on the board at the mutual Yorkshire Building Society. But MPs, campaigners and LV members claim the board no longer has members’ support, and should no longer lead the firm as it plans for the future.
MPs fear that Hutchinson will push through a sale of LV and play a critical role in Yorkshire Building Society.
Gareth Thomas, Labour MP wrote to Hutchinson July seeking an explanation. She also questioned whether Hutchinson would support a Yorkshire sell-off.
Thomas, who leads the all-party parliamentary group on mutuals, said yesterday: ‘With almost 90pc of the members of LV not backing their dodgy deal and not one genuinely independent expert backing the deal either, the board are quite clearly not fit for purpose and shouldn’t be anywhere near negotiations about what might come next.
‘After what was a highly opaque and ultimately botched attempt to sell off to one of the world’s most controversial private equity giants in Bain Capital, Mr Cook and Mr Hartigan should do the decent thing and go immediately and the Financial Conduct Authority should oversee an orderly replacement of the current board.’
Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake said: ‘LV needs new management. Alan Cook should be banned from being a director – and when he was called in front of Parliament during inquiries into the Bain deal, he gave poor answers to questions and showed a lack of understanding of the fundamentals of the business.’
LV said on Friday that Hartigan had the board’s ‘absolute and full support’.
Cook and Hartigan claimed that the company was up for sale due to its urgent need of cash in order to modernize and expand.
Bain offered them a deal, which would have removed LV’s mutual status, despite LV having received a similar offer by Royal London.
The deal was eventually rejected and LV is back at the drawing board. Royal London is encouraging it to continue talks.