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Low & Bonar appoints CFO de Klerk as new chief executive officer

Published: 21:33 31 Jan 2018 AEDT

Board room
The group also added Peter Bertram, non-executive chairman of Zinc Media, Hobs Group and Esteem Holdings, to the board as a non-executive director

Shares in performance materials maker Low & Bonar PLC (LON:LWB) shot up on Wednesday as it announced its new chief executive officer (CEO).

Chief financial officer Philip de Klerk will take over as the CEO with effect from March 1.

READ: Low & Bonar unravels after profit warning and CEO Brett Simpson defects to Fenner PLC

Low & Bonar lost its previous CEO, Brett Simpson, on December 20 – the same day it announced a profit warning. Simpson jumped ship to Fenner PLC.

Trudy Schoolenberg, who had been holding down the CEO role while the search for Simpson's replacement went on, will lead the restructuring of the global supply chain at Low & Bonar, after which she will revert to being a non-executive director.

Meanwhile, having promoted de Klerk to CEO, the group is on the hunt for a new abacus rattler.

“Since joining us last October, Philip has demonstrated very clearly his leadership quality. We are confident that he will execute the group strategy very effectively and that Low & Bonar will achieve sustained progress under his leadership," said Martin Flower, the chairman of Low & Bonar said in a statement.

Flower also thanked Schoolenberg for stepping into the breach and said she had had “a very positive impact in a short space of time”.

Full-year results were also announced today, and after December's profit warning, there were few surprises.

Revenue in the year to November 30 rose 11.6% to £446.5mln from £400.0mln the year before, helped by foreign exchange tailwinds; stripping out currency movements, revenue rose 4.5%.

Underlying profit before tax rose 5.1% to £30.7mln from £29.2mln but was down 2.2% on a constant currency basis. The consensus forecast for profit before tax prior to last month's profit warning was £32.2mln.

Net debt at the end of the reporting period stood at £138.4mln, up from £111mln a year earlier.

Despite a mixed year for the group, the dividend pay-out was increased to 3.05p from 3.00p.

READ: Low & Bonar suffers hurricane fall-out as prices rise

"The group achieved strong sales growth in 2017 despite a generally difficult market backdrop. The profit performance across our four global business units was mixed, with profit growth in B&I [Building & Industrial] and I&T [Interiors & Transportation] offset by a significant reduction in profitability in Civil Engineering and a lower than anticipated performance in CTT [Coated Technical Textiles],” Flower said.

“We develop and apply some of the world's most advanced fabric technologies and we do so whilst keeping close to our customers and anticipating their requirements. This makes us well positioned to realise opportunities for profitable growth. 2018 presents both challenges and opportunities for Low & Bonar, as we work to determine the future strategy of the Civil Engineering business, deliver performance improvement at CTT, whilst continuing to support the growth strategies of our strong B&I and I&T businesses. We are confident of making further progress this year across all these areas."

L&B's shares were up 11.1% at 60p in mid-morning trading.

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