Industrial conglomerate Essentra (ESNT) names Coats' (COA) chief executive Paul Forman as the man to turn around its fortunes following a botched acquisition spree.
Forman oversaw the transition of asset manager Guinness Peat into a standalone entity, Coats, via the disposal of a variety of investments and other non-core assets.
A similar challenge may await at Essentra as the new chief executive looks to reorganise the empire Colin Day built at Essentra through a flurry of acquisitions since his appointment in 2011.
Day, previously finance officer at consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser (RB.), enjoyed a strong start at Essentra and propelled the business into the FTSE 250 and doubled turnover to in excess of £1bn.
But Essentra slipped up on its largest deal to-date, the $455m (£373m) acquisition of consumer packaging business Clondalkin from private equity house Warburg Pincus.
Integration is running behind schedule, according to a trading update on 9 June, and Essentra’s tobacco filters and oil and gas-focused businesses are also struggling.
Day announced the disposal of Essentra’s Porous Technologies business in August for £220m in what looked like an attempt to reduce indebtedness following poor performance at Clondalkin post-acquisition.
Forman at Coats has overseen the refocusing of a sprawling asset management company at Guinness Peat to a single line business specialising in industrial threads.
Shares in Coats fell 0.9% with very little trading volume on news Forman will be leaving for Essentra at the end of 2017.
Rajiv Sharma, previously business unit head of the core industrial division, takes the top job at Coats.
