Rolls hires its ‘uber bear’ critic

ROLLS-ROYCE has appointed one of its fiercest critics to a key role at the engineering group.

Deutsche Bank analyst Ben Fidler – described by sources within the company as Rolls’s “uber bear” for his repeated maulings of the business – will leave the heavyweight broker to become director of group financial planning and analysis in September.

In one note six months ago, when chief executive Warren East was battling to get the company back on track after a string of profit warnings, Mr Fidler gave Rolls a miserly 1p upgrade on his target price for the engineer’s shares. Titled Hope vs Reality, the note set about deconstructing Rolls’s troubles and Mr Fidler later admitted that the upgrade – from 474p to 475p – was “technically a rounding error”.

Mr Fidler currently has a 540p target on Rolls, and the company’s shares are trading at 873p.

One source close to Rolls said “Warren likes to hire people who challenge him”. Mr Fidler will report to chief finance officer Stephen Daintith.