Rumours grow as Earthport CEO leaves
Struggling international foreign exchange payments company Earthport has confirmed to Loyalty that CEO James Bergman has resigned with immediate effect and his duties would be taken on by the Executive Team.
The company said in a statement that members of the executive team have recently been engaged in “a constructive dialogue with the principal of Zink relating to the receipt of the payment due on 21 December 2009”.
Earthport shares have been in steady decline recently with talk that the company is on the brink of failure.
Apparently the discussions with Zink are over receipt of a £3.25m non-refundable first year franchise fee that should have been paid on December 21.
Earthport claims 10 years experience in international payments and says that it has over £70m invested in coverage, operations and technology.
The main shareholders of publicly traded Earthport are Schroders PLC (11.48%), Millennium Global High Yield Fund Ltd (10.44%), HU Investments L.L.C (9.39%), Hawkwood Capital LLP (6.09%) , Smith and Williamson Investment Management (5.44%).
Earlier this month it reported that its Middle East operation had won the business of Universal Exchange in the UAE.
The agreement allows Universal Exchange to offer its existing large base of SME clients in the UAE outbound trade/corporate payments to a number of destination countries around the world.
Universal Exchange is a specialist corporate exchange & remittance business which was established in early 2006 and has since made its mark on UAE SME corporate market, with its recognised commercial/trade payments expertise.