20th Jan 2015 11:07
LONDON (Alliance News) - Balfour Beatty PLC on Tuesday poached Phil Harrison from corporate services company Hogg Robinson Group PLC to become its new finance director, a step that bolsters the company's depleted management and board as it continues to search for a new chairman.
Harrison will take up the position and join the board of the FTSE 250-listed support services and construction company later in the year, Balfour said, without providing a specific date. Hogg said Harrison will remain in the role at least until its full-year results are announced in May 2015, and would then leave at a "mutually acceptable time".
Prior to working for Hogg, Harrison was the finance director at VT Group PLC, the government support services organisation, and is the former vice-president of finance for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region at Hewlett-Packard.
"We are delighted to have found and attracted a candidate of Philip's experience and calibre and he will be joining a leadership team committed to restoring Balfour Beatty to strength," said Balfour Chief Executive Leo Quinn.
Hogg said it has started the process of trying to identify a successor to Harrison.
Shares in Balfour were up 0.9% to 207.86 pence on Tuesday, while Hogg Robinson shares were down 0.6% to 41.625 pence.
Balfour Beatty also said its search for a new chairman "is progressing well and an announcement will be made in due course". Steve Marshall is currently the group's non-executive chairman, having been interim executive chairman prior to Quinn's arrival, but intends to step down once a replacement is identified.
Balfour's attempts to shore up its board were dealt a blow in November last year after the company saw non-executive directors Belinda Richards and Bill Thomas both resign from their positions. The pair's resignations added to a turbulent year for the company's board, with former Chief Executive Andrew McNaughton having stepped down in May and Duncan Magrath, who Harrison replaces, saying earlier in November that he would step down after a replacement was found.
The reshuffling of the board came after a slew of profit warnings for Balfour resulted in it becoming first a takeover target and later a candidate for a potential break-up. The profit warnings resulted in the group having to instigate a review of its UK construction services business after it got locked into a series of unprofitable contracts.
In December, it rejected a bid by John Laing Infrastructure Fund Ltd, another FTSE 250 company which invests in infrastructure projects, to buy its PPP portfolio. That came after it struck a deal in October to sell its US asset management business, Parsons Brinckerhoff, to WSP Global Inc. The Parsons Brinckerhoff business was at the centre of a failed takeover attempt by peer Carillion PLC earlier in the year. The talks broke down after Balfour refused to halt the sale of the Parsons business.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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