Elders boss Malcolm Jackman has agreed to an immediate exit from the besieged agribusiness.
The Elders Board announced the move in a statement to the stock exchange Wednesday morning.
“The decision to bring forward Mr Jackman’s retirement from the business has been reached after discussions over the last week,” the company’s statement to the stock exchange said.
Jackman was appointed managing director and chief executive officer five years ago as the debt-laden company sailed into the headwinds of the global financial storm.
It’s been a rocky road since, with the business going through several restructures that have left it as a “pure-play” agri-business.
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It recently posted its financial results for the 2013 financial year, where its losses topped the half-billion dollar mark.
It also incurred an operating loss and retains more than $255 million debt.
Elders reported underlying gross earnings as a loss of $42 million compared to last financial year’s profit of $8.2 million.
At the time, Jackman said the restructure of Elders was almost complete.
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“The 2013 year marks the near completion of a five year process of rationalisation and restructuring of assets, operations, finances and carrying values in order to refocus Elders on its core strength and historical purpose – rural services,” he said.
“Without trying to diminish or overlook the costs to many of the stakeholders involved, we are relieved to have finally reached that goal.
“Elders can finally focus all of its management and staff attention on operating our core business and serving our customers.
“With the completed divestment of Futuris Automotive, the near-completion of the forestry wind-up program, and continued support from our financiers, Elders is again a pure-play agribusiness.”
Elders chairman Mark Allison said that with the restructure almost complete, it “is an appropriate time for Malcolm to step down”.
“On behalf of the board, I extend our sincere thanks and respect to Malcolm for his leadership and commitment to the Company over the five years since he was appointed as CEO in September 2008.
“Despite some of the worst ever global economic and market events and repetitive poor seasonal conditions during that time, under Malcolm’s leadership Elders has all but completed the challenge of restructuring itself from a complex conglomerate with far too much debt to return to its core strengths in rural services,” Allison said.
“Elders is now a much simpler, more efficient operation with a clear focus on its core rural services skills, brand and customer network and we thank Malcolm for his untiring effort to achieve that outcome.”
Jackman said: “It has undoubtedly been a very difficult and challenging journey to restructure Elders and to return it to its core business focus, but we are very confident that objective has all but been attained.
“As a result, I have agreed with the board that this is an appropriate time to step down and to focus on other emerging business opportunities.”
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