30th Jul 2015 08:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Xchanging PLC Thursday said that Chief Executive Ken Lever intends to retire at the end of 2015, prompting a hunt for a new boss, as the company swung to a pretax loss in the first half after taking a GBP47.5 million goodwill impairment charge in its procurement division.
In a statement, the business process services and technology company said the search for a successor is underway.
Xchanging said it made a GBP44.4 million pretax loss in the six months to the end of June, compared with a GBP22.2 million pretax profit in the corresponding half of the prior year.
Lever said a "number of variables" will play their part in determining how Xchanging does in the year as a whole.
"Procurement's performance was poor. Given a negative outlook, the business will be reorganised over the next half year to facilitate achievement of run-rate profitability," Lever said.
"There are a number of variables to the potential full-year outcome including progress on the reorganisation of Procurement, the timing of Xuber contract wins and currency rates. The outlook for the full year is a trading performance in line with last year and a return to profit growth in the full year 2016," Lever added.
The chief executive said the board was pleased with the majority of the group in the first half, with its business process services operations in line with its expectations.
Xchanging shares were down 21% at 99.70 pence on Thursday morning in London.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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