Director turns on Kingfisher

FRENCHMAN Jean-Hugues Loyez has resigned from the board of Kingfisher to concentrate on opposing the British retailer's £3.2bn bid to buy in the minority shares of Castorama Dubois Investissement, which he continues to chair.

The departure of Loyez, who was boss of Kingfisher's DIY subsidiary, underlines his determination to oppose new chairman Francis Mackay at every turn as Mackay seeks to turn Kingfisher from a holding company into a focused DIY retailer.

Loyez has declared his determination to 'fight to the end' to oppose Kingfisher, which already has 55% of shares in CDI, which owns B&Q and France's biggest DIY chain, Castorama, but has only 49% of the votes.

He says Kingfisher's e4267-a-share offer will destroy shareholder value. But on Saturday the Lille Tribunal of Commerce set aside Castorama's claim that the bid breached its articles of association. It refused Castorama's plea for a mediator, and appointed Schroder Salomon Smith Barney to assess whether the bid is fair value for minority shareholders.