Finablr PLC (LON:FIN) tanked on Friday after founder B.R. Shetty and his son, executive director Binay Shetty, pledged over half of the stock as a collateral for a loan.
Over 392mln shares in the FTSE 250-listed Travelex owner, representing 56.03% of the company, were used as a security against a debt contracted by BRS Ventures & Holdings Limited.
READ: Finablr plunges despite claims of no “material” impact from Sodinokibi ransomware
BRS, which is founded and owned by the Shettys, took out the loan in 2015 to acquire Travelex.
The business, which operates counters in airports and on the high street as well as providing currency exchange services, was moved to holding company Finablr in 2019.
Finablr floated last May and owns other payment businesses such as UAE Exchange.
Travelex was recently hit by hackers, who swiped customers data and then demanded US$6mln as a ransom.
The attack occurred on New Year’s Eve prompting a complete shut-down, forcing airport and high streets outlets to use pen and paper systems, with online customers unable to make transactions.
The company later said there was “no evidence” that personal customer data had been stolen while it was “gradually restoring a number of internal systems” to bring activities back to normal.
Only a couple of weeks earlier, B. R. Shetty came under fire after short-seller Muddy Waters expressed concerns over the financial statements of NMC Health PLC (LON:NMC), which Shetty founded in 1975.
The FTSE 100-listed private hospital operator launched an independent review of the "unfounded" allegations.
Shares in Finablr dropped 27% to 95.45p and NMC Health dipped 2% to 1,372.5p on Friday afternoon.