Non-executive chair Danny Gladstone and company secretary Mark Ludski have stepped down from Ainsworth Game Technology following reports of undisclosed bonus payments.
The departures come after the Australian Financial Review alleged that both former executives received undeclared bonus payouts connected to a major share sale made years ago.
Kjerulf Ainsworth, son of company founder Len Ainsworth, had publicly called for both men to resign following those allegations.
According to a new ASX filing, Gladstone and Ludski informed the board of their intentions to resign “in light of recent media reports regarding personal payments made to them over eight years ago.”
The pair reportedly “decided it is in the best interests of AGT for them to resign so that AGT can move past these distracting complaints in order to focus on the execution of its strategic priorities.”
Reports suggest Len Ainsworth paid Gladstone A$10m and Ludski A$5m following his 2016 sale of a 53% stake to Austrian supplier Novomatic, with those sums not appearing in relevant disclosure reports.
At the time of the alleged payments, Gladstone was serving as AGT’s CEO while Ludski held the position of CFO.
AGT’s board issued a statement acknowledging the pair’s contributions, saying: “The board wishes to acknowledge and express their appreciation to both Mr Gladstone and Mr Ludski for their leadership and significant contributions to AGT over many years with the company.”
No time was wasted in filling the chair vacancy, with Graeme Campbell assuming the role after serving as an independent non-executive director since 2007.
Campbell has also joined AGT’s regulatory and compliance committee, while Heather Scheibenstock will take over from Gladstone as chair of that group.
Lynn Mah and Andrew Kabega have been appointed as joint company secretaries to replace Ludski, with Mah currently serving as AGT’s CFO and Kabega joining from corporate advisory firm BoardRoom PTY.
Novomatic has raised its stake in AGT to 66.6% following Len Ainsworth’s original share sale, putting it within reach of the 75% threshold required to take the company private.
Kjerulf Ainsworth, currently the largest minority shareholder at 9.55%, has been actively working to block that outcome by accumulating stock of his own.
He previously made an off-market bid to purchase 5.5% of each existing shareholder’s stake at A$1.30 per share, a bid that closed in April.
Since then, he has paid increasingly higher prices on the open market, spending more than A$6m of his own capital over the past 12 weeks.
His most significant single transaction came on 2 June, when he purchased just over two million shares at a price of A$1.60 each.
Kjerulf has previously described Novomatic’s takeover offer of A$1 per share as an undervaluation, and his willingness to pay substantial premiums signals clear intent to keep accumulating stock.
