| Huveaux FD to go after failed takeover talks |
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| Thursday, 20 December 2007 | |
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Dan O'Brien has resigned as group finance director at Huveaux PLC.
The company said that he would be leaving in March 2008 following the scheduled announcement of Huveaux’ 2007 preliminary results. The B2B media said that O’Brien is leaving to take up the CFO position at Shine Group, an independent TV production company. O’Brien qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte & Touche in 1991. He previously held senior financial positions with Hanson PLC and COLT Telecom before taking up the position of director of finance at Eidos PLC in 2003. He was appointed to the Huveaux board on 1 January 2006. Huveaux, formed in 2001, currently employs over 500 people and operates in the UK, France and Belgium. Through four divisions (education, healthcare, learning and political) the group provides study aids and revision guides in the UK, medical information and education in France, bespoke e-learning in the UK and political information, public affairs and policy communications in the UK & EU. Shares in Huveaux group (LSE:HVX) have fallen dramatically in the last few months, from 53.5 pence a share in June to just 20.5 pence in London on Thursday. It announced on 26 June 2007 that EBITDA for 2007 was expected to slightly exceed the level achieved in 2006 although this was “significantly lower” than expected. The board blamed the results on a significant drop in sales revenue in its French healthcare division as compared to the first half of 2006. It said that this was a direct result of pharmaceutical companies cutting their advertising budgets across the board in response to the sharp rise in generic drugs. Huveaux added that results at its learning division would be below market expectations too. This division had been impacted by training budget cuts in government departments during the first half of 2007. The firm added on 22 October 2007 that it had received preliminary approaches from a number of private equity houses and subsequently confirmed on 12 November 2007 that it was in detailed discussions with August Equity about a possible offer for the company. Last week Huveaux said that it had not reached agreement on a proposal that fully valued the company and that discussions had been terminated with all parties. Huveaux added that trading across the group had been satisfactory in the key final quarter of the year. The board confirmed that it expects trading EBITDA for the current financial year to be approximately £6.0 million. The board completed £1.3 million of annualised cost savings for 2008 through by reducing staff numbers across the organisation. Related links |
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