Concerned Shareholders of Oportun Financial Corporation Call on Three Directors to Resign Based on Their Unwillingness to Replace Value-Destructive Management

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07/25/2024 - 10:45 AM

Group Highlights Just 28.4% of Total Outstanding Shares Voted For Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Chair Ginny Lee in Uncontested Election, Signaling a Clear Lack of Confidence Among Investors

Urges Ms. Lee, Neil Williams and Louis Miramontes to Resign From the Board Given Their Apparent Inability to Hold CEO Raul Vazquez Accountable for Poor Financial Results and an ~80% Share Price Decline

Wants the Board to Finally Appoint a New CEO with Relevant Industry Experience to Initiate a Turnaround

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Bradley Radoff and Josh Schechter (together with their affiliates, the “Concerned Shareholders” or “we”) today issued the below open letter to the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Oportun Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: OPRT) regarding the need for three directors to resign following the 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders and the Board to appoint a new Chief Executive Officer.

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Oportun Financial Corporation
2 Circle Star Way
San Carlos, California 94070
Attention: The Board of Directors (Jo Ann Barefoot, Mohit Daswani, Ginny Lee, Carlos Minetti, Louis P. Miramontes, Scott Parker, Sandy Smith, Richard Tambor, Raul Vazquez and R. Neil Williams)

Members of the Board,

We are meaningful shareholders of Oportun who have previously expressed our concerns to you regarding the appointment of a CEO who lacks relevant industry experience, the Company’s poor financial results under said chief executive and the apparent lack of independent oversight in the boardroom. Recent developments, including the voting results of Oportun’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the “Annual Meeting”), have only strengthened our conviction that the Board needs to take immediate action to reverse the Company’s significant destruction of value since its 2019 initial public offering.

Given the fact that just 28.4% of the total outstanding shares supported Ginny Lee’s uncontested re-election, shareholders clearly believe that Ms. Lee should assume accountability for her apparent failures as Chair of the Company’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. We believe Ms. Lee should immediately resign from the Board.

We also call for the resignations of directors Neil Williams and Louis Miramontes. Following Mr. Williams and chief executive Raul Vazquez’s overlapping tenures at Intuit, it appears obvious Mr. Williams is unwilling to hold Mr. Vazquez accountable for Oportun’s disappointing operating results and the Company’s approximately 80% share price decline over the past 12 years.¹ Mr. Miramontes, who has served on the Board for 10 years now, has overseen this destruction of virtually all shareholder value.

We believe only a reconstituted Board will make the necessary changes – starting with the dismissal of Mr. Vazquez, whose appointment has proven to be a mistake. We have no confidence in management’s ability to fix the business and believe a turnaround can only occur with a new CEO who possesses the right experience.

Lastly, we reiterate our demand that the Company use industry-standard GAAP metrics instead of management’s concocted Adjusted EBITDA, which only serves to artificially inflate executives’ compensation figures.

We look forward to managerial and governance changes at Oportun.

Sincerely,

Brad Radoff & Josh Schechter

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1} Source: Bloomberg. Share price data is calculated from market open on September 26, 2019 through market close on July 24, 2024.