Four members of NZ Automotive Investment board quit over ‘irreconcilable differences’

The board of used car dealer NZ Automotive Investments has fallen apart because of differences over how the company should be run.

Three non-executive directors of the company, Charles Bolt, Tim Cook and Tracy Rowsell, as well as executive director and founder shareholder Eugene Williams, who owns 34 percent of the company, have resigned from the board.

“The resigning directors consider that they have worked constructively and effectively together to govern the company since needing to form a new board in April following the unexpected resignation of two other independent directors,” the departing directors said.

“However, there has been a fundamental breakdown of trust and confidence and irreconcilable differences have arisen between them and the remaining director and major shareholder David Sena regarding the way in which a publicly listed entity should be managed and governed.”

They said Sena had given notice that he planned to move at the annual shareholders’ meeting in late August to remove the three current non-executive directors, while he had also proposed three new candidates for the board.

The company, which owns the nationwide chain 2 Cheap Cars, said in April that the rise of the New Zealand dollar against the Japanese yen had cost it $700,000 in losses on currency hedges, and would reduce its expected full year profit.