Even before last week’s suspension
of its shares and this week’s Serious Fraud Office investigation, Torex Retail
has aroused strong emotions in the City.
No more so than last month, when Neil
Mitchell, its recently appointed chief executive, appeared to have come off
worst in a pavement scuffle with a leading City analyst.
Although the precise chain of events
leading to the incident remain unclear, The Times has learnt that the
slightly built Mr Mitchell was on the receiving end of a headbutt from Stuart
Lunn, the software and computer services analyst at Collins Stewart.
The incident took place early on
December 1 outside London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel in the aftermath of the
London Stock Exchange’s annual techMARK awards dinner.
After the ceremony, Mr Mitchell, who
had been parachuted into the AIM-listed company two months earlier, is
understood to have been buttonholed by a group of technology analysts seeking
greater clarity on his turnaround strategy.
Having arrived at Torex with no track
record at a listed software company — he has served as a special adviser to
United Utilities and Severn Trent, while his private company directorships had
included the Cornish Spring Water Company — the 43-year-old had aroused
considerable curiosity within the investment community.
As an analyst with a “sell”
recommendation on Torex’s shares, Mr Lunn is understood to have been one of Mr
Mitchell’s more persistent questioners. Mr Lunn, who joined Collins Stewart
last year from Seymour Pierce, its smaller rival, would not comment on the
incident.