Mean Fiddler’s shares plummet

SHARES in the Mean Fiddler Music Group, the concert promotion business run by Irishman Vince Power, crashed by more than 20% yesterday after the company sacked its new chief executive and pulled out of a planned acquisition.

In a shock announcement to the stock exchange, the company also said a share placing by directors to fund the takeover was also being cancelled.

Mr Power had intended to sell his entire 35% stake in the company as part of a share placing to raise money for the takeover of Media Internet Telecom (MIT) and would have netted €18 million.

The move means he will remain the company’s largest shareholder and suffered a €2.4m fall in the value of his holding.

Shares in Mean Fiddler, which are traded in London, fell by 22% yesterday on the news to 42p.

A new chief executive, Dean James, was to have taken up the role yesterday but a lengthy board meeting on Monday decided he had to go before he started and Mr Power was brought back on board as chairman.

No reason was given for the sudden reversal, but sources pointed to personality clashes.

Mean Fiddler said the search for a chief executive would begin immediately.

Mr Power was to have taken on the part-time role as head of its music festivals arm. Mean Fiddler’s on the Reading and Leeds rock festivals and has a stake in Glastonbury.

“Vince is back at the helm, it will be the same business it was before,” a company spokesman said.

“The process to find a new chief executive to take the business forward and deliver on the current strategy will begin with immediate effect.”

Last week the company, founded by Waterford-born Mr Power 23 years ago, announced radical restructuring plans. It said it would pay €8.2 million to takeover Media Internet Telecom, which collects money from people downloading music from the internet and planned to replace Mr Power with MIT’s boss Richard Clingen.

The Mean Fiddler spokesman said the deal was not permanently scrapped and could be revived.

Mean Fiddler owns 15 music venues in Britain, including the Jazz Café and the Astoria. It was responsible for organising the British and European tours of Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Usher and Eminem in the past couple of years.

For the six months to end June yesterday, which showed pre-tax losses rescued from €4.8 million to €2.3 million. Turnover was 35% ahead at €29 million.