‘Something awry’ at Naked Wines as director quits and shares tank

“You only find out who’s swimming naked when the tide is out,” stock voter Warren Buffett once said.

Now investors in Naked Wines may find that advice — on how to expose corporate weaknesses in a recession — can be taken more literally than they’d like.

A director resigned yesterday after less than three weeks and the company has launched a review of its plans, prompting Wayne Brown, an analyst at Liberum, to say, “Something has gone wrong.”

As shares fell by 37.7 percent, or 54.7 pence, to 90.4 pence, Naked Wines said Pratham Ravi resigned.

He is an analyst at Florida investor Punch Card Capital, one of its largest shareholders, with a stake of approximately 10 percent.

Naked Wines also said it is trying to tackle a credit facility that would allow it to borrow money from its banks.

It comes after the Norwich-based company warned in June that its retention rate had fallen from 88 percent to 80 percent in the past fiscal year.

Days later, the chief financial officer left. Shares fell 40 percent that day and are down more than 87 percent in the past year.

Naked said, “The company is reviewing potential operational and financial plans for the next 18 months and will update them along with our trading update.”

This is next month. Brown added: ‘This could imply a smaller company in the future and curb ambition, which makes sense given the poor performance indicators.’