Profit alert hits Dulux owner after merger war

DULUX owner Akzo Nobel has issued a profit warning just three months after fending off a £ 22.5bn takeover approach from American rival PPG.

The company had hoped to make a profit of £ 91m but admitted its results for this year will now fall short.

Chief financial officer Maelys Castella also revealed she would be stepping down immediately due to ill health.

But Akzo did say she would return to a senior role after ‘an anticipated recovery’. Castella’s exit, however, is the second senior departure after Ton Buchner resigned as chief executive in July, also because of health reasons.

The chemicals giant’s recent profit shortfall and the wave of senior executive departures raises questions about the future of the company and its defence strategy to drive growth as a stand-alone firm.

The business faced the wrath of activist shareholder elliott Advisors when it rejected three takeover bids from Pittsburghbased PPG. But it is currently ploughing ahead with an ambitious growth strategy that involves separating its chemicals business from its paints and coatings arm, increasing its financial guidance for the year and dishing out £1.3bn of dividends to shareholders.

Amsterdam- based Akzo, which bought the paints and coatings division of iCi, the former UK industrial chemicals firm, for £8bn in 2008, employs more than 3,300 staff in the North east, Glasgow, suffolk, the Midlands and at its headquarters in slough.