Kate Bleasdale, the founder and former executive vice chairman of healthcare recruiter Healthcare Locums (HCL), has made a claim against her former employer that could cost the company £2.24m. 

HCL says it received a letter from Bleasdale’s solicitors, asserting that HCL should purchase her shares at a price of £1.12 per share, which was the share price immediately before the company's suspension from AIM in January 2011. 

Under a recommended cash offer made to minority shareholders last week by Angel Acquisitions, a newly incorporated company formed to make and implement the offer, Bleasdale would receive only 0.75p per share - the difference between this figure and the £1.12 per share Bleasdale claims explains the potential £2.24m cost to HCL should her action prove successful. 

According to HCL, the letter from Bleasdale’s solicitors alleges that her position as a shareholder of HCL has been “unfairly prejudiced” by events that led to the suspension of trading in HCL's shares in January 2011 and its subsequent restructuring in September 2011. 

HCL says other claims made by Bleasdale in her solicitor’s letter are:

• The decision to suspend trading in the company's shares was unreasonable and unnecessary.

• The refinancing plan favoured the larger shareholders at the expense of smaller shareholders.

• The board acted unreasonably and contrary to the interests of the company and in supporting the restructuring plan, and that it failed to consider and/or pursue alternative refinancing options.

The statement says HCL is considering its response. However, it says it observes that the account set out by the solicitors for Kate Bleasdale is not consistent with the overall findings of the Employment Tribunal that heard her unsuccessful claim for unfair dismissal, discrimination and whistle-blowing. 

Recruiter attempted to contact Bleasdale, but she was unavailable at time of going to press. 

In February, Bleasdale told Recruiter that her 2m shares were worth around £10k. As Recruiter reported on Friday, other minority shareholders are also in danger of a severe financial haircut should the deal go through.

The news follows developments in February when HCL said it had received an indicative offer from Toscafund Asset Management and Ares Capital Europe (ACE), who together own around 72% of HCL’s shares to purchase the remaining shares from current shareholders, and indicated their intention to inject “significant capital” into the business.