Smiths Group share price falls as company appoints new CEO
Smiths Group Plc (LON:SMIN) has appointed GKN Plc’s (LON:GKN) Andrew Reynolds Smith as its new chief executive officer, the FTSE 100 engineer has announced. In a statement to the London Stock Exchange today, the company said that Smith would replace Philip Bowman on September 25. Bowman is to continue in his role until then.
Smiths chairman George Buckley commented: “I am absolutely delighted that we have attracted someone of Andrew’s calibre as our new Chief Executive.His career has equipped him to grow businesses through innovation and technical excellence as well as through targeted M&A. Smiths will greatly benefit from his engineering insight and leadership skills.”
Buckley also recognised Bowman’s contribution to Smiths during his eight-year spell at the helm of the company, saying that “There is no doubt he leaves the business in substantially better shape than when he joined”.
Smith has served in various senior management roles at GKN Automotive and is currently the head of GKN Automotive. In his new position at Smiths Group, he will receive a base salary of£780,000 and will be eligible for an annual bonus of up to 180 percent of base salary, one third of which will be deferred into Smiths Group shares. The new CEO will also be eligible for annual award of up to 300 percent of his base salary under the company’s long term incentive plan.In addition, he will receive a pension allowance of 25 percent of the base salary, private healthcare and other customary benefits worth around £200,000 in total.
In today’s trading, Smiths Group shares were down 1.6 percent at 1,123.00p, as of 08:55 BST. The stock has risen 2.1 percent since the start of the year and the company’s market capitalisation currently stands at £4.4 billion.
The 17 analysts offering 12 month price targets for Smiths Group have a median target of 1,125p, with a high estimate of 1,300p and a low estimate of 880.00p.
As of 10:11 BST, Tuesday, 07 July, Smiths Group plc share price is 1,110.50p.
