Vocation chief executive Mark Hutchinson will leave the company after presiding over a devastating few months that began with a brutal smackdown from the Victorian government and ended in an estimated $27 million loss.
The education provider on Wednesday revealed a worse than expected decline in its earnings had forced it to renegotiate its funding arrangements and said it was looking at possible mergers or asset sales.
The company expects to have recorded underlying earnings of just $3 million during the six months to December 31, which is set to blow out to a $27 million net loss once one off costs and losses associated with its Victorian businesses are included.
In response, Mr Hutchinson has told the company's board of directors he will step down once a replacement is found.
Meanwhile, the suspension of Vocation's shares, which began more than a week ago, is set to continue until mid February as new chairman Doug Halley tries to right the ship.
Vocation was publicly floated in late 2013 and quickly achieved market darling status as its shares climbed nearly eighty per cent in their first 10 months of trading on the ASX.
But the wheels came off in September as rumours about problems with two of its Victorian subsidiaries sent its shares tumbling.
They fell much further the following month when Vocation announced the Victorian government had stripped it of $20 million in funding after an audit review lambasted the performance and practices of the two subsidiaries BAWM and Aspin.
The company's then chairman, former Keating government treasurer John Dawkins stepped down a month later and shortly thereafter Vocation slashed its full year earnings guidance from between $57 million and $53 million to between $25 million and $30 million.
Now it has abandoned even that forecast and says it is revising its full year guidance.
Mr Halley has launched a strategic review of the company's operations, which he says will consider everything from asset sales to possible mergers and recapitalisation.
"We would anticipate that given the level of interest we have received for some assets, we expect to be in a position to make a decision about the best options within weeks rather than months," he said.
"We believe that this course of action is in the best interest of all shareholders and will see the company best placed to move forward."
The company expects its shares, which last traded at just 25 cents, down more than 90 per cent from their $3.40 high in September, are expected to remain in a trading halt until February 13.
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