Photo: Facebook / 2 Cheap Cars
The corporate soap opera surrounding used car retailer NZ Automotive Investments continues.
In the past year the company has been through a boardroom meltdown in which most of its directors quit, while it also lost its auditors, and bankers.
Chairperson Michael Stiassny said the "ship had been righted" after last year's "disarray" and the company, which operates the 2 Cheap Cars chain, now had new leadership, and a strategy which was driving sales growth.
The concentration on the business and not the boardroom showed through in the annual result with a profit of $1.3 million for the 12 months ended March, as forecast by the company last month, including $1m in one off costs, and compared to the previous year's $2.6m profit.
But Stiassny said the company was still being plagued by a dispute between its two biggest shareholders; David Sena with a 49.6 percent stake, and Eugene Williams with a 35.7 percent holding, who has walked away from the company.
"Eugene Williams is no longer involved with the company. His plans for his shareholding remain unclear. He has opened up car yards under the brand 'New Zealand Cheap Cars' in a couple of locations adjacent to 2 Cheap Cars."
"This might seem clever, and indeed amusing to some, but that behaviour from a major shareholder cannot be in the interests of the company, his own shareholding, or unfortunately anyone else."
Stiassny said the ongoing feud was a major pressure on the company's shareprice, which was $1.30 a share when it listed two years ago, but has ranged between 22 and 69 cents since the boardroom bust-up.
New chief executive Paul Millward said in recent months the company had been selling more electric and hybrid vehicles with improving margins, and far from worrying about an economic slowdown he saw advantage in the company being the "entry point to the affordable car market".
The company plans to change its name to that of its retail chain, 2 Cheap Cars.