Premier Foods drops after switch of finance chief shocks markets
PREMIER Foods said yesterday that its chief financial officer Mark Moran would be leaving the company, sending its shares down nearly eight per cent in morning trade on uncertainty about the company’s efforts to improve its performance.
Alastair Murray, most recently group finance director of Dairy Crest Group, will take over the job on 30 September.
Moran joined Premier in 2011 and helped steer it through the first phases of a turnaround, including a major refinancing in early 2012.
The decision to leave is “entirely personal,” Moran said in a statement. The company said it asked Moran to commit to at least the next three years to continue the transition, but that he felt unable to do so.
Shares closed down 2.9 per cent last night at 143.25p.