Director Jumps Off Child-care Board
The Age
Wednesday September 10, 2008
STRUGGLING child-care company ABC Learning has lost one of its high-profile new directors before it could formalise the appointment.
The company, which is suspended on the Australian Securities Exchange and is yet to finalise its full-year results, said Frank Ford had "advised that he no longer wishes to proceed with the appointment".The market early last month welcomed the appointment of five high-calibre people when the company announced a board restructure.The shares gained and chairman David Ryan said ABC Learning had attracted the "right mix of skills and experience".Mr Ford, who is a non-executive director of Toll Holdings, Citigroup and Healesville's TarraWarra Museum of Art and a former managing partner at Deloitte, said circumstances had changed in the past few weeks.ABC Learning has delayed the release of its annual accounts, and is revising its profits for the past two years on the advice of auditors Ernst & Young."Basically the announcement was subject to the results and obviously things have changed a little bit since our initial briefing," Mr Ford said, insisting he would "absolutely" retain his other board positions.A spokeswoman for ABC Learning said the company was not expecting any more early departures from the board, which is to include Sydney Ports Corporation chairman Paul Binsted, Charter Hall Property Trust director Patrice Derrington and two representatives associated with ABC Learning investors Morgan Stanley Private Equity and Temasek Holdings.Yesterday, ABC Learning said it had recruited former CSR executive Peter Trimble as chief financial officer, and cited his experience in "organisational transformation"."Peter has a strong background in operational financial management that will complement ABC's renewed focus on improving its Australian/New Zealand businesses," said Mr Ryan.ABC Learning is the world's biggest publicly listed child-care operator by number of centres, and has a substantial chunk of the corporate-sponsored child-care market in Australia.But its shares have fallen about 92% in the past year, in part because of the lack of cheap credit and investors' aversion to debt-laden companies.It has been forced to sell 60% of its US business to Morgan Stanley Private Equity. It recently sold its British voucher business, and is considering selling its British nurseries business and real estate.ABC Learning will release its full-year accounts before the end of the month, when fully audited accounts are due.However, several analysts, including those at UBS and ABN Amro, have ceased coverage of the stock.LINK? www.childcare.com.au
© 2008 The Age