Caxton MD Gordon Utian drops out — without knocking

CAXTON investors might not know it, but Gordon Utian, the MD of the printing and media company, has called it quits.

On Thursday, Caxton chairman Paul Jenkins confirmed to Business Times that Utian had “decided to retire”.

“Gordon is 68, and we have to do succession planning. There’s nothing salacious about it from my perspective,” said Jenkins.

However, Caxton CEO Terry Moolman is aged 70, and there is no indication he plans to leave the group he built any time soon. Moolman and his business partner Noel Coburn effectively control 51% of Caxton.

“Terry’s even older, but he’s the owner, [and] owners have some other kind of barometer for when they step down,” said Jenkins.

What is likely to raise eyebrows is that despite being listed on the JSE, Caxton has issued no formal announcement or explanation for Utian’s departure to investors.

This comes in a week when Pinnacle Holdings was vilified for not revealing price-sensitive information regarding the arrest of an executive. When news leaked, Pinnacle’s shares fell 43%.

This will be a low-key departure for Utian, who has been MD of Caxton — worth about R6.8-billion — since 1996. Before that, Utian held positions in retail and manufacturing companies such as Shoprite and Tiger Oats. He is also on the board of the Audit Bureau of Circulation for print media.

Utian’s departure comes amid a 35% slump in Caxton’s share price in recent months. Caxton’s stock hit a peak of about R25 in December, before falling to its current level of about R16.

There was also no indication given to shareholders of Utian’s departure in Caxton’s half-year results released last month.

Caxton said then “the new year has started on an unhappy note”, as it revealed an 8.3% drop in pretax profit of R352-million.

Like many media companies, Caxton has been searching for a way to marry the success of its print operations — notably with its range of knock-and-drop community newspapers — with new ventures in the digital realm.

This year, Caxton bought Habari Media to handle sales of the group’s digital publications.

Neither Utian nor Caxton founder Moolman could be reached for comment.