A GROUP of top institutional investors is plotting to arrange the sale of Ultimate Leisure, the AIM-quoted nightclub and bar company, from under the feet of its management.

Scottish Widows, Artemis, Gartmore and Standard Life, the four biggest shareholders, secretly approached the company’s broker and asked it to sell the Newcastle business after losing confidence in the management. Investors are angry after revelations that one Ultimate director and the chairman’s brothers sold shares in the group just weeks before a profit warning.

A source close to the company said: “This management has lost all credibility.”

Tim Wynn, development director, sold 100,000 shares at 308p on April 13. After the April 29 profit warning the shares plummeted to just over 240p. They closed on Friday at 249p, valuing the firm at £62.5m.

Stephen and John Rankin, who founded the business with their brother Allan, the chairman, have sold the bulk of their stakes. Stephen had 2.9m shares, about 12% of the group, but on March 29 Ultimate said he no longer had a “notifiable interest” in the business. A notifiable interest is 3% or more. John Rankin held 1.6m shares. Ultimate announced on March 22 that he no longer had a notifiable interest in the shares.

Ultimate has denied that either Wynn or the Rankins knew of the profit warning when they disposed of their shares. The company faces questions from the Financial Services Authority about the directors’ dealings.

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