29th Nov 2018 12:28
LONDON (Alliance News) - Unilever PLC on Thursday announced the departure of Chief Executive Paul Polman, just a couple months after his plan to make the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant more Dutch was blocked by UK shareholders.
Beauty & Personal Care President Alan Jope will be promoted to succeed Polman as group CEO.
Polman served as CEO for ten years, and but his recent attempt to simplify Unilever's dual-listed structure into a single Netherlands-based entity was scrapped in early October in the face of UK shareholder objections.
Broker AJ bell said that Polman's "legacy has been slightly tarnished by the failed plan", which would have seen the consumer goods firm move its headquarters to Rotterdam but keep UK operations in place.
Unilever, which makes Persil laundry detergent and Colman's mustard, would have had to drop out of the FTSE 100 index in London, forcing many passive shareholders to sell their stake.
AJ Bell expressed some surprise at the selection of Jope as Polman's successor and said that Tesco PLC Chief Executive Dave Lewis had "long been seen as a potential successor to Polman".
"Indeed," the broker said, "he used to have Jope's job at Unilever up until 2014".
Jope has headed Beauty & Personal Care, the largest Unilever division, since 2014 when Lewis departed to head up the UK supermarket chain and has held a number of roles with the firm since he joined as a trainee in 1985.
Polman will step down at the end of 2018 with Jope stepping up January 1. However, Polam remain with the firm until early July to aid the transition.
Shares in Unilever were down 0.3% at 4,243.50 pence on Thursday.
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