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Economy

Parker to leave Dyson Group

Thursday, 06 March 2008

Nick Parker, group finance director, has decided to leave materials technology firm Dyson Group plc at the end of the current financial year on 31 March 2008.

Heidrick & Struggles has been appointed to find a suitable replacement for the position.

In the meantime, Chris Kinsella, a non-executive director of Dyson (LSE:DYS) and highly experienced finance director, will devote more time to the day to day financial management of the business in conjunction with the executive team.

Parker, who has been finance director for over eight years, played a key role in the transformation of Dyson from a traditional refractories business into a high growth performance materials group and has been particularly involved with the strategy for exiting low margin activities.

Dyson Group is not to be confused with the vacuum cleaner manufacturers. This Dyson has material technologies facilitating developments in automotive emission control, hard disk drive access speeds and Fuel Cell Technology.

These technologies, alongside its solid cash-generative traditional business, have underpinned consistent share price growth.

The Group was established almost 200 years ago and is listed on the London Stock Exchange as a constituent of the FTSE-All Share Index.

Dyson Group has seen a slump in its share price from 312.5p in June 2007 to 107.5p on 11 February 2008.

Interim results for the six months to 30 September 2007 released at the end of November showed that underlying profit before tax increased by 29 per cent to £4 million.

Statutory profit before tax stood at £2.7 million, compared to £700,000 in 2006, and earnings per share of 5.71p compared to 1.68p in 2006.

The group said in its AGM statement in September 2007 that it had significantly reduced its risk profile within the financial markets.

It renewed and enhanced its five year, unsecured banking facilities and favourably capped its interest rate exposure.

The board added that it had managed its US dollar income such that it had converted dollars at a rate which was not significantly different from the rates at which its budgets were set for the current year.

The board said in a statement in January that production volumes of diesel trucks in the US markets which are served by its Saffil Automotive business remained soft due to global market conditions and product pricing issues, but added that it was confident in the prospects for the product as witnessed by new opportunities which were emerging.

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