WPP AUNZ shares slammed following earnings downgrade and CEO departure
The share price of WPP AUNZ has collapsed 28% this morning following news of an earnings downgrade and the departure of the company’s CEO, Mike Connaghan.
Shortly after Connaghan’s departure was announced to the ASX, the company revealed it expected earnings per share for the financial year to be down between 12% and 15%, while net sales would fall between 1% and 2%.
CEO Mike Connaghan’s departure was announced a few minutes before the earnings downground.
The company had previously told shareholders it expected 3% growth for this financial year following 2017 sales of $869.9m resulting in 9.8c earnings per share.
Interesting times ahead for Team Connaghan recruits.
Mike was the last of the Singleton -Tate culture high margin guys, running c5000 staff with typically industry staff churns rates between 20-30% pa. This last remnant culture will need to be replaced, and crashes into things like, as in 2017 WPPAUNZ annual report, a 16 page remuneration report for three executives to get to a CEO salary of $1033636 (amazingly accurate!) based upon all sorts of silly hurdles which get wiped out by any media sector revenue change tsunami. Macquarie Radio paid Tate $1,000,000 base for the year no bonuses separately or non-cash, just a clean $1m from 5 pages, thought worthwhile for the best performing little radio network. One could sympathise for a bloke having had enough this progressive rigour mortis. When one has tried everything – campuses, touch points, and is, and must defend, #1 by a mile, there is nothing more, only disappointment. Good wishes.
So APAC’s a basket case, eh? And in other news: “Ad Age’s Meg Graham reports. The culprits in the (WPP) decline include weakness in its creative agencies and in its North American business, including a string of client business losses.”
Time for plan B, WPP.