Peregrine delays chief executive’s departure due to restructuring

THE PLANNED restructuring of financial investment company Peregrine Holdings is set to delay the departure of current chief executive Jonathan Hertz until at least to the end of July.

The group wants to keep Hertz on board until there is a clear direction about the restructuring process.

Hertz was set to leave at the end of June, but the group has asked him to extend his exit for another month.

The current chief financial officer Robert Katz will hold the fort from August 1 on an interim basis until a new chief executive has been appointed.

The board has run a search process resulting in a short-list of potential candidates from which an appointment could be made.

Peregrine has sought dispensation from the JSE for Robert Katz to continue in his role as chief financial officer as well during this interim period.

The group said the aim was to finalise and implement the restructure and unbundling by no later than the end of the current calendar year and shareholders would be advised on the progress in due course.

In its results Peregrine reported a decline of 16 percent in normalised headline earnings to R499 million for the year to end March, down from R591m reported in 2016. Normalised headline earnings per share also fell by 16 percent to 231.6 cents a share, down from 276.3c while normalised operating revenue decreased by 8 percent to R2.33 billion, down from R2.52bn as compared to 2016.

Despite the lower earnings during the period, the group was happy about the performance of some of its divisions.

“There was growth in earnings from the operating businesses of Peregrine Capital, Peregrine Securities and Java Capital, while the stronger rand impacted negatively on the earnings of Citadel and the translated earnings of Stenham. Higher returns from proprietary investments within the hedge funds were offset by significant decreases in the value of listed investments,” the group said.

Stenham’s profits declined to R74m, down from R144m in 2016. The group declared a dividend of 155c a share.

Peregrine shares rose 4 percent on the JSE yesterday to close at R28.60.