Boardroom battle looms for Redbus

DIRECTORS of internet services company Redbus Interhouse are resisting an attempt to unseat them by the founder and its former deputy chairman Cliff Stanford. Redbus said it would write to tell shareholders that Stanford's call for the removal of finance director Carl Fry, managing director Kevin Neal and chairman John Porter is 'an unnecessary and a wasteful distraction'.

Stanford, who has about 29% of Redbus, is calling for an extraordinary general meeting, and for replacement directors to be named before then. Interhouse has 21 days to set a date for the extraordinary general meeting, which must occur within three months.

Stanford and Porter, the son of Tesco heiress Dame Shirley Porter and also a substantial Redbus shareholder, have fallen out over strategy and who should run the show as the company's shares have dived. At 65p a year ago, they lost 1/4p today to stand at 5 1/2p.