Allied Farmers subsidiary Allied Nationwide Farmers has lost an experienced director at a crucial time with John Spencer tendering his resignation.

Mr Spencer joined the finance company’s board in 2008.

Allied Nationwide attributed Mr Spencer’s resignation to his desire to reduce his commitments after recently being appointed chairman of KiwiRail.

However, his experience is likely to be sorely missed.

Mr Spencer was a member of the Accounting Standards Review Board from 1999 to February 2008 and prior to that a member of the Financial Reporting Standards Board of the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants.

He holds a number of other directorships including Tower Limited and Solid Energy.

Allied Nationwide's credit rating was recently downgraded from BB- to B from Standard & Poor’s and is therefore not eligible for the extended government retail deposit guarantee.

Its parent company Allied Farmers has yet to reach and agreement with its bank to extend bank facilities which expire on July 1.

Negotiations with Westpac and one other lender proposing to offer funding under a shared security arrangement are continuing, the company said last week.

In December, the company concluded and settled the acquisition of the Hanover Finance and United Finance assets and it has since written their value down drastically.

The company’s loan facility of $16.5 million plus overdraft facility of $2.5 million with Westpac expires on July 1.

Allied Farmers shares were down 10% at 3.6c yesterday.