Architect of Regal expansion resigns after boardroom row

Charles Vere Nicoll, who helped build Regal Hotels into a 117-strong group, has resigned as executive chairman after what is understood to have been a boardroom row.

A spokeswoman said that Vere Nicoll's decision to retire from the board arose because he considered that his work of building up Regal had been completed.

But insiders said he had become irritated by interference from the company's biggest shareholder, Regent Corporation, which took a 20% stake in Regal when it invested £40m in the group in 1997.

"There has been a strategic disagreement. The expansion of the group has not been reflected in the shareholder value," said one source.

Vere Nicoll was not available for comment.

The announcement of his resignation coincides with the re-appointment of former group operations director Charles Holmes, who left the company in 1991 to head the management team which bought County Hotels from Queens Moat Houses.

Regal bought County for £115.4m this month. Holmes has now become Regal's deputy managing director.

City analysts agreed that the performance of Regal's share price, which has slipped over the past 12 months from 49p to 26p, had been disappointing, although one said that "deal for deal" the company had made sound decisions.

When Vere Nicoll, along with managing director Nicholas Crawley, took over Regal in 1993, it had just three hotels.