(Reuters) - British lender Provident Financial (LON:PFG) Plc said on Wednesday that it had a clear plan to map out growth and enhance performance across its divisions, as it reiterated that rival Non-Standard Finance Plc's takeover offer should firmly be rejected.
Last week, Provident Financial rejected a 1.3 billion pound takeover bid launched by its former CEO and said it was looking for a better solution to turn around its business.
Provident has been rebuilding after a botched reorganisation of its home credit business led to profit warnings, the departure of its CEO and the suspension of its dividend in 2017. It has also been under investigation by Britain's financial watchdog.
"Today's announcement illustrates how we have put the company's legacy issues behind us and strengthened our relationship with our customers, regulators and other stakeholders," Chief Executive Office Malcolm Le May said in a statement.
The doorstep lender, which provides credit to people who do not meet the lending criteria of mainstream banks, said it would appoint a managing director and chairman for its Vanquis Bank unit, both with retail banking and consumer finance experience.
Provident has also faced lost income from a FCA investigation into the Repayment Option Plan offered by Vanquis Bank and an investigation into Moneybarn, its car and van financing arm.
The lender said Moneybarn had made significant progress with the FCA on the redress to be paid to resolve the issues arising from the investigation into affordability.
Provident's consumer credit unit (CCD) had started a voluntary redundancy programme, expected to reduce headcount by about 200 in CCD's central support functions, it said.
The lender reiterated that NSF's offer was not in the best interests of Provident's shareholders.
"The offer undervalues Provident, has major strategic flaws, contains a number of misguided assumptions about the Provident business and includes future plans which we consider to be fraught with execution risk," Chairman Patrick Snowball said.