Revolution Beauty’s former boss and co-founder Adam Minto is understood to have voted against the re-election of the brand’s chief financial officer at its AGM.
Adam Minto co-founded the cosmetics brand in 2014 but quit last year amid accounting concerns.
According to reporting by The Times, a third of votes cast at the company’s annual meeting were against Elizabeth Lake, who joined last year following governance issues. The shares voting against equated to about 15% issued capital, and Minto holds a 15.8% stake.
The report comes after the brand announced that it was considering pursuing legal action against Minto, “looking to recover material sums” from him over various alleged breaches of fiduciary, statutory or contractual duties.
Those alleged actions were said to have contributed to the delay in the audit of its 2022 results, and the subsequent suspension of the company’s shares from trading on Aim.
City law firm Macfarlanes was appointed to investigate after the auditor BDO refused to sign off the full-year accounts after noting “serious concerns”.
Macfarlanes found that Revolution had made “unacceptable” loans to senior managers and had asked distributors to book orders worth £9 million to help to achieve targets. It is not clear whether legal action has commenced.
According to the report, Minto could not be contacted for comment and Revolution declined to comment. The retailer said directors were “disappointed” with the vote but added that “the chairman will be happy to engage with the key shareholders on these issues”.
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