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Incitec Pivot boss Jeanne Johns is leaving the fertiliser and explosives maker in a move that follows investor pressure over the company’s performance and doubts about its planned demerger.
The company said Johns will step down as managing director and chief executive and be replaced by Incitec’s chief financial officer Paul Victor while the board searches for a permanent replacement.
Incitec Pivot’s Jeanne Johns is leaving the fertiliser and explosives maker.Credit: Michael Quelch
“Jeanne will continue to work with the board and Paul Victor until 30 June 2023 to facilitate a smooth transition of her responsibilities,” Incitec said in a statement to the ASX.
The company’s chief of staff Liza Somers, who has been with Incitec for a decade in key leadership positions in the finance team, has been appointed as interim chief financial officer.
Incitec’s chairman Brian Kruger said Johns was with the company for five and a half years and was leaving it in a strong financial position with a solid platform for future growth.
“Jeanne has also led some significant transactions that will create long-term value for our shareholders, including the urea offtake agreement with Perdaman and the recently announced sale of the Waggaman ammonia manufacturing facility in Lousiana, USA,” Kruger said.
Disappointing earnings in its latest half-year result saw Incitec’s share price slump and increased pressure on Johns, who has undertaken a major process to simplify the business in a bid to set it up for longer-term success.
Profits at the group’s fertiliser division tumbled 58 per cent, offsetting a 42 per cent profit rise at its Dyno Nobel explosives division.
The half-year result largely reflected a confluence of forces outside Incitec’s control – floods, excessive snowfall, rising commodity prices (particularly for urea which is used to make the fertiliser) and gas prices – that ate into customer demand or impacted its products.
Johns’ push to split the company into two separate businesses – explosives (Dyno Nobel) and fertiliser (Incitec Pivot Fertilisers) – announced last year, was put on hold while she negotiated the sale of Waggaman, but investors hold doubts about the value of a demerger.
S&P Global ratings agency said earlier this year that while the split would make Incitec operationally less volatile, splitting off the explosives business and selling the ammonia plant would lessen the company’s scale of operations and earnings diversity.
Kruger said Johns led the organisation through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and was instrumental in developing its decarbonisation strategy.
Incitec’s largest investor is Hong Kong’s Janchor Partners, whose founder John Ho joined the board after gaining a 9 per cent stake. The company’s major Australian competitor is explosives manufacturer Orica.
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