RBG (RBGP:50p), a professional services group that encompasses one of London’s mid-tier law firms (the now-integrated Rosenblatt and Memery Crystal), corporate finance boutique Convex Capital and a soon-to-be-sold litigation funding arm, LionFish, has strengthened its board following the departure of both its finance director and chief executive.
Chief operating officer Jon Divers, who joined the group in February 2022, has been promoted to chief executive after the board lost confidence in former chief executive Nicola Foulston. Finance director Robert Parker has departed, too, replaced by Suzanne Drakeford-Lewis. She spent the past 15 years in the legal services sector and prior to this worked for multinational corporations in the fast-moving consumer goods and technology sectors. Tania MacLeod (senior partner, Rosenblatt) and Nick Davis (senior partner, Memery Crystal) have been appointed executive directors, too.
Their first task is completing the divestment of LionFish after the subsidiary lost two court cases, and missed profit guidance that prompted January’s profit warning and a £4mn non-cash write-off in the 2022 accounts. RBG is at the due diligence stage with one acquirer that will return cash to the group as well as a share of the upside in successful cases. It means that investors can now focus on the positive prospects for RBG’s two core operations.