{"id":830444,"date":"2025-03-27T07:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T11:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/findell-capital-management-responds-to-oportun-nasdaq-oprt-comments-announces-nomination-of-sandra-bell-and-warren-wilcox\/"},"modified":"2025-03-27T07:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T11:10:10","slug":"findell-capital-management-responds-to-oportun-nasdaq-oprt-comments-announces-nomination-of-sandra-bell-and-warren-wilcox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/findell-capital-management-responds-to-oportun-nasdaq-oprt-comments-announces-nomination-of-sandra-bell-and-warren-wilcox\/","title":{"rendered":"FINDELL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT RESPONDS TO OPORTUN (NASDAQ: OPRT) COMMENTS, ANNOUNCES NOMINATION OF SANDRA BELL AND WARREN WILCOX"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

PR Newswire<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\n Expresses Confidence in Expertise and Experience of Ms. Bell and Mr. Wilcox to Drive Much-Needed Governance and Operational Improvements<\/i>\n <\/p>\n

\n Points Out Record of Value Destruction by Management and Legacy Board, Credits Recent Stock Price Improvement to Findell’s Involvement and Oversight Provided by New Directors<\/i>\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n NEW YORK<\/span>
\n <\/span>, March 27, 2025<\/span><\/span> \/PRNewswire\/ — Findell Capital Management LLC (“Findell”), which beneficially owns approximately 9.2% of the outstanding common stock of Oportun Financial Corporation (“Oportun”), today issued an open letter to the board of directors (“Board”) and shareholders of Oportun (NASDAQ: OPRT) responding to the Board’s comments of March 20, 2025<\/span> and announcing that it has nominated Sandra Bell<\/span> and Warren Wilcox<\/span>, two highly qualified director candidates with extensive lending and public board experience to act as independent stockholder fiduciaries.<\/p>\n

The full text of the letter can be found on Findell’s website (see here<\/u><\/a>) and below:<\/p>\n

To the Board of Directors and our Fellow Stockholders:<\/p>\n

Findell Capital Management LLC (together with certain of its affiliates, “Findell,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) announced today that we have nominated two highly qualified director candidates, Sandra Bell<\/span> and Warren Wilcox<\/span>, to the board of directors (the “Board”) of Oportun Financial Corporation (“Oportun” or the “Company”).<\/p>\n

We believe that the addition of Ms. Bell and Mr. Wilcox to the Board is necessary to address the governance issues plaguing the Company and impeding long-term value realization. The current ten-member classified Board continues to be controlled by six legacy directors whose lack of lending experience, troubling interpersonal ties and overall track record raise serious concerns for us about their ability to continue to oversee the Company.<\/p>\n

In response to our open letter last week, Oportun issued a public statement in which its leadership touts the Company’s recent results and argues that they justify not making governance improvements. While we welcome the opportunity for constructive dialogue, we feel it is important to correct the record by providing context to claims made in the Company’s recent statement.<\/p>\n

Oportun’s stock price reached a high of $27.95<\/span> on November 12, 2021<\/span>; then, after what we can only characterize as a series of costly, unforced errors, the stock fell to around $3<\/span> in early 2023, closing below $3.00<\/span> on multiple trading days throughout March 2023<\/span>. This was when Findell stepped in. After a series of letters, both public and private, and our active engagement with the Company, three new directors with extensive lending experience, two of whom were put forward by Findell, joined the Board in 2024, and the stock has since recovered to approximately $6.00<\/span>, where it sits today.<\/p>\n

We believe it is rich for the legacy Board and management to take credit for the recent improvement in stock price given their decisions drove Oportun to the brink of insolvency and the drastic improvements since then have flowed almost entirely from our entreaties and the involvement of our seasoned lending executives to shepherd along those changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reality of this business is simple –\u00a0Oportun has a loan book of approximately $3 billion<\/span> that throws off $1 billion<\/span> in interest revenue and, if operated in line with competitive benchmarks, should generate more than $250 million<\/span> in pre-tax income. That this Board appears to be taking a victory lap because the Company’s market cap went from $100 million<\/span> to $225 million<\/span> reveals how clueless they are to their own ineptitude as well as the full potential of Oportun.<\/p>\n

There were other misleading claims in their response that we believe demonstrated a dim understanding of their own operating economics. Oportun claimed for instance that they exceeded our cost cut calls \u2013 we called for $450 million<\/span> in total operating expenses in our original letter in early 2023 and they are at $400 million<\/span> today.<\/p>\n

They failed to note that during the two subsequent years following our letter, origination volume declined from $3 billion<\/span> in 2022 to $1.8 billion<\/span> in 2024, while income producing assets fell by 10%. Their cost reductions did not keep up with these declines, which is why the business was still not profitable in calendar 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While we are happy to give some credit to the Board for at least partially enacting obvious and necessary changes, the reality is that had Oportun reacted fully and promptly, we believe expensive dilution would not have been necessary.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Board has slow played what should have been obvious changes and has acted in our view as generally contemptuous towards stockholders, of which we are the largest.<\/p>\n

We can see this today in their refusal to make the critical operational and governance improvements that we have called for in our public letters, which would, we believe, drive earnings and associated multiples substantially higher upon adoption.<\/p>\n

In the coming weeks, Oportun will have to answer two questions:<\/p>\n