Heads roll at Lamprell

OCTOBER 8, 2012 — Nigel McCue (left) is out as CEO and board member of UAE-based Lamprell plc (LSE:LAM), whose facilities include shipyards at Hamriyah and Jebel  Ali. CFO Jon Cooper and COO Chris Hand are also off the board but will “remain with the company in order to ensure continuity in senior roles until such time as suitable replacements are recruited.”

Former Chief Executive Peter Whitbread, who was with Lamprell from 1992 until 2009, has been appointed as Interim Chief Executive and has rejoined the board with immediate effect.

Chairman John Kennedy commented:  
 
“The board has stated that it feels a refreshed management team will bring a more focused sense of delivery to all our stakeholders and our search for new management in these key senior roles is now in train. I want to thank Nigel for his contribution to Lamprell during his six years at the company, both as a non-executive then as an executive director. I am pleased Peter is taking over on an interim basis and with his knowledge of the company he will be able to hit the ground running, providing stability at this important time for the company.”  

The shake up comes after two offshore wind installation jack-ups were delivered late to Fred Olsen. Lamprell announced last week that it had incurred additional costs on both vessels that would adversely impact the forecast loss for the year ending 31 December 2012. It also said “a delay in client deliverables on a separate construction project has resulted in a deferral of revenue and profit from 2012 to 2013. There has been no deterioration in the project’s expected financial performance, but the deferral will impact the 2012 financial results.”
 
“Having identified and been made aware of these and other issues,” said a statement, “the board intends to instruct the company to appoint external advisors to provide an independent assessment of the full extent of their financial impact. As a result of internal work in estimating their likely combined extent, the company now anticipates that the loss for the year will be significantly greater than previously expected. The order book currently stands at approximately US$1.5 billion.  
 
“In light of these recent developments the Chairman, with the fullest support of the non-executive directors, considers that changes to the leadership and senior management team are required to ensure Lamprell begins to rebuild its reputation with both investors and customers.”

The statement said that the company “remains in discussions with its lending banks regarding its covenants and remains confident that it will have sufficient cash flow to fund its ongoing activities and debt repayments.”