Two long-serving directors of troubled Financial Planner Kingswood, including a former CEO, have resigned from the board with immediate effect.

Non-exec deputy chairman Jonathan Massing and ex-CEO Gary Wilder have both stepped down but will remain minor shareholders.

Both have been on the board since 2017, most recently as non-executive directors.

Yesterday both sold most of their shares to Kingswood's majority owner, private equity firm HSQ, representing 21% of total shares. HSQ now owns nearly 90% of shares, giving it a controlling hand in making future changes.

Mr Wilder has been with the company for eight years, during a period of rapid expansion and numerous acquisitions. He is the co-founder of Kingswood Property Finance Limited Partnership where he made a series of strategic investments in financial services.

Mr Massing is non-executive deputy chairman and has a background in commercial and corporate finance advisory, buyouts, venture capital and shareholder dispute advisory.

Earlier this week it emerged that Kingswood’s private equity majority shareholder HSQ, a subsidiary of Pollen Street Capital, was set to take full ownership of the business which is struggling with a £91m debt mountain.

HSQ already owned 68.4% of Kingswood shares but said it may make a bid for the rest of the business at 7p a share.

Kingswood has borrowed heavily to fund expansion and has needed several cash injections to repay debts. It warned this week it may be in danger of running out of money to service its debt pile.

Kingswood has seen strong growth in revenues and AUA/M since 2019 but admitted recently its performance had been hit by “headwinds” it says have also been seen across the sector.

Since the start of 2024, to satisfy the working capital obligations of the company, including to meet deferred payment obligations and debt interest payments on its senior debt facility, HSQ, or affiliates of HSQ, have provided the company with additional loans amounting to £21 million.

As at 31 December 2024, the unaudited gross debt in the company from its senior debt facility, and the loans provided by HSQ and/or affiliates of HSQ since February 2024 amounted to £90.7m.

Kingswood said against this backdrop it has “imminent obligations” which significantly exceed the cash balance available at the end of this month (March 2025).

Kingswood has acquired over 20 firms, many of them Financial Planning businesses. 

However in July last David Lawrence, the CEO, quit the firm after overseeing much of the expansion. He was replaced by ex-Positive Solutions CEO and Chartered Accountant Peter Coleman as interim CEO.

In a statement last summer the company said Assets Under Management or Advice in the the UK & Ireland were approximately £9.8bn (31 December 2023: £9.4bn). However the most recent reporting period saw outflows in Assets under Advice in the UK following the departure of some wealth advisers.

Yesterday (13 March), HSQ Investment Limited acquired 144m shares in the company (21% of the issued share capital) from KPI (Nominees) Limited. When added to other shares in the company it means that HSQ now owns 89.4% of the issued share capital. 

Following the purchase by HSQ Investments of Kingswood ordinary shares held by minority shareholder KPI Nominees Ltd, KPI no longer has any direct shareholding in the company although it retains a beneficial interest in approximately 7% of the Kingswood Shares already held by HSQ. Mr and Mr Wilder both have a beneficial shareholding in KPI. Following the KPI Transaction, Mr Massing is beneficially interested in 350,000 Kingswood Ordinary Shares (0.05% of the company's issued share capital) and Mr Wilder is beneficially interested in 1,115,051 Kingswood Ordinary Shares (0.16% of the company's issued share capital).