CEO Exits Abruptly As ABB Revamps -- WSJ
April 18 2019 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Brian Blackstone and Nathan Allen
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (April 18, 2019).
ZURICH -- ABB Ltd. has abruptly parted ways with its chief
executive, just months after the European engineering giant
unveiled a major new strategy.
The Swiss company said Wednesday that Chief Executive Ulrich
Spiesshofer would leave with immediate effect after five years in
the top job. Under his leadership, ABB focused more on robotics and
digital technology. Meanwhile, its share price struggled.
In December, ABB unveiled a strategy encompassing four areas:
electrification, automation, robotics and motion. It also announced
the sale of its power-grid unit to Japan's Hitachi Ltd. in a deal
that valued the business at $11 billion.
While Mr. Spiesshofer had some success in pruning the group's
portfolio including the power-grid deal, he was pressed by some
shareholders -- notably Swedish activist Cevian Capital and
U.S.-based Artisan Partners -- to deliver a more radical
restructuring. Those big investors had called for a spinoff of the
power-grid unit years earlier -- a move Mr. Spiesshofer resisted at
the time.
His efforts also failed to energize the company's share price,
which changed little during his tenure while engineering peers
Siemens AG and Schneider Electric SE registered double-digit gains.
ABB shares rose 5.4% to 21.20 Swiss francs ($20.98) on
Wednesday.
Mr. Spiesshofer, 55 years old, said he was handing over a
"trimmed ABB ship that is on a clear course and gaining speed."
ABB Chairman Peter Voser, a former CEO of Royal Dutch Shell PLC,
will replace Mr. Spiesshofer on an interim basis until a permanent
appointment is made.
Mr. Voser said the decision to part ways with Mr. Spiesshofer
was mutual and that it followed deliberations over who should guide
the company through its next phase. He added that ABB wouldn't
change its strategy.
Cevian, which has a 5.3% stake in ABB, said it supported the
company's strategic direction and had full confidence in Mr. Voser.
Cevian co-founder Lars Förberg has been a member of the ABB board
since 2017.
ABB also released its first-quarter earnings ahead of schedule
to pre-empt any speculation that Mr. Spiesshofer's departure
stemmed from a weak performance in the period.
Net profit for the quarter fell 6% to $535 million but beat
consensus forecasts of $431.5 million. Orders rose 3% on a
comparable basis to $7.61 billion, while revenue climbed 6% to
$6.85 billion.
Write to Brian Blackstone at brian.blackstone@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 18, 2019 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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