Lord Stevens offers to quit PNC in compromise deal

Lord Stevens of Ludgate, the former newspaper baron, is today expected to stand down as chairman of PNC Telecom, the troubled mobile phone retailer.

His resignation is a central part of a compromise deal stitched together to end a damaging month-long dispute between the company and its founder and minority shareholder Geremy Thomas.

Mr Thomas, who owns 17.5 per cent of the stock, called an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders for today to call for the sacking of five of the seven directors, including the chief executive and chairman.

Under a draft agreement, Lord Stevens will quit along with non-executive director Peter Dicks. Mr Thomas will become deputy chairman under John Peett, another non-executive director of PNC who was one of the founders of Vodafone.

If the deal is approved by a board meeting of PNC, which was still going on last night, Mr Thomas will withdraw his EGM resolutions. "Peace would then break out," said a source close to the talks.

If the deal were rejected, Mr Thomas would put the matter to a vote, which he believes he would win as he already has support from investors with 40 per cent of PNC.

Crucially the deal would allow Ian Gray, who joined the company in June, to continue as chief executive. He is credited with having turned round the business. He replaced Darren Ridge, whom the company is pursuing with a writ for misappropriation of funds. PNC directors had feared Mr Thomas would have brought Mr Ridge back into the company if he had won control.

But there was still a risk the deal would fall apart last night amid rumours that Mr Thomas was holding out for the job of executive chairman.

PNC Telecom owns KJC, a 51-strong chain of mobile phone shops, and a business that sells personalised telephone numbers. It is worth £9m now compared with a value of £200m less than three years ago.

The struggle for control of PNC has been bitterly fought with allegations of dirty tricks, threats of libel writs, and High Court legal battles.