The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Boardroom shake-up at textiles group
Millions of pounds was wiped off the market value of Low & Bonar yesterday after the technical textiles group revealed a major boardroom shake-up.
Investors took fright after the firm announced that chief executive Brett Simpson had resigned from his position leading the group with immediate effect.
He has been replaced on an interim basis by non-executive director Trudy School-enberg while the search for a new permanent CEO is conducted.
However, Mr Simpson will remain as an employee of Low & Bonar until April 30, when he leaves to join Fenner PLC.
Details of Mr Simpson’s departure came alongside a trading update for the business which flagged a poorer than expected final quarter for the coated technical textiles unit as a result of an “adverse product mix and sales timing”.
The company – which was founded in Dundee and which still has an operation making carpet backing products at the city’s Caldrum Works – said trading conditions had otherwise been stable.
Full-year adjusted pre-tax profits are now expected to come in at between £30 million and £31m for the year to November 30, with net debt at year end of approximately £138m.
Shares in Low & Bonar dropped by almost a fifth in trading yesterday and eventually closed down 13.25p at 54.5p.
Meanwhile, troubled infrastructure giant Carillion is to parachute its new chief executive into the firm earlier than previously planned.
The group, which is embroiled in an ongoing crisis that has involved a string of profits warnings, will now welcome Andrew Davies on January 22, rather than April 2.
Interim chief executive Keith Cochrane will step down from his role in January but will remain with Carillion in an advisory capacity to ensure an orderly transition, the firm added.
Mr Davies is currently the chief executive of Wates Group, where he has held the role since 2014.
In November, the HS2 contractor issued its latest profit warning and said it will breach its debt covenants, which resulted in another share price collapse.
Despite efforts to drive down costs, haul in cash and push through disposals, the group said at the time that it would fail to hit its net debt to earnings ratio of 1 to 1.5 times by the end of 2018.
It came after the firm, which has about 43,000 staff worldwide, posted half-year losses of £1.15 billion.