AA PLC has served former Chairman Bob Mackenzie with a notice that would require that he surrender about 33 million incentive shares that could be worth up to £220 million, Sky News reported.
The company's lawyers served the order, known as a compulsory transfer notice, to Mackenzie's attorneys after he filed a damages claim in the U.K. High Court for allegedly unfairly dismissing him in July 2017, according to sources. Mackenzie, who also filed a legal claim against AA with an employment tribunal, has said the purpose behind his sacking was that he opposed a merger or takeover of the company, something that irked his executive colleagues.
He was dismissed from the firm, which provides roadside assistance as well as other insurance services, after a physical altercation with insurance chief Michael Lloyd, and has since been hospitalized with mental health issues, Sky noted.
Sky said it learned that AA had received an approach for a potential takeover from private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC but that Mackenzie had opposed the deal because he felt that investors and the business as a whole would suffer.
