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Management, being an important essence in the success story of a company makes it a considerable parameter for an investor while analysing the stocks.
As all the big decisions are finally approved with the consent of top managers, it becomes imperative to gauge the mindset of management. For an investor while studying the company fundamentals, following aspects are important to review with respect to the management:
- Competitive positioning of the company under a certain leadership
- Level of engagement that management has been maintaining with their shareholders
- Visions and past strategic moves of the management
Let us now zoom the lens on the recent management changes in two Australia-based companies, IAG and SPT.
Insurance Australia Group Limited (ASX: IAG)
General insurance company, Insurance Australia Group Limited was founded in 1920 and has operations in Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam. IAG owns many leading brands to sell their insurance, including CGU, NRMA Insurance, SGIC, Swann Insurance, SGIO and WFI (Australia); and NZI, AMI, State and Lumley (New Zealand).
Exit of Mr Ben Bessell:
On 21 January 2020, the company announced that Mr Benjamin Bessell who is holding the position of Group Executive has decided to take an exit from the company by the end of March 2020.
Mr Bessell has spent more than 26 years with IAG, where he served number of positions at executive level within CGU insurance business and IAG. Some of his recent experiences include:
- Stepping out of his role as Executive General Manager Business Distribution, Mr Bessell has been leading a program of work in commercial insurance business of the company for the past 12 months,
- Served as a Chief Executive of the company’s Australia business division,
- Member of the Group Leadership Team since 2015.
Stock Performance- There was drop of 0.52 percent in the stock price of IAG as on the date of announcement (21 January 2020) of the exit news of Mr Ben Bessell.
As on 23 January 2020 (1:36 PM AEDT), the stock of IAG traded at $7.700, down 1.29%.
The stock has generated a return of 8.48 percent and 28.02% in last one-year and five-year, respectively. The company is trading with the annual dividend yield of 4.1 percent with 70 percent franking.
Splitit Payments Ltd (ASX: SPT)
ASX-listed company, Splitit Payments Ltd (ASX: SPT) is a solution provider for payments during in-store and online transactions. They have their own patented technology which allows the merchants to grow in sales and expedite their average order value. Moreover, it allows the shoppers to make payments in monthly instalments. SPT was founded in 2008 and headquartered in New York, along with operating offices in Australia and London and R&D centre situated in Israel.
New Role for Mr Brad Paterson:
On 21 January 2020, SPT announced some of the new appointments to the Board wherein Mr Brad Paterson (CEO) was onboarded as MD, along with Mr Jan Koelble who joined as an independent Non-Executive Director.
Besides, Mr Gil Don (Co-Founder and GM, EMEA) and Mr Michael DeFranco (Non-Executive Director) have resigned from the Board to pursue new opportunities.
On 19 September 2019, SPT announced a reshuffle in the designation and role of Mr Brad Paterson and Mr Gil Don.
Mr Paterson currently holds the role of Chief Executive Officer, applicable since 1 October 2019, who was then serving the position of Managing Director in North America since his joining in June 2019.
Mr Paterson took over the CEO role from Mr Gil Don, Co-Founder of the company as Mr Don took the role of General Manager in EMEA region.
Mr Paterson’s prior experience:
- Brad has over 20 years of experience in leadership and executive roles at some of the payment as well as software companies such as Visa, PayPal and Intuit.
- Brad spent nearly five years at Intuit holding the position of VP for Asia-Pacific and Global operations. Also, he led the team for go-to market, responsible for US QuickBooks revenue growth.
- At PayPal, he spent about six years serving different positions, including Head of Merchant Services, APAC.
- At Visa, he served as Director of Consumer and Emerging Products, ANZ.
Stock Performance: As on 23 January 2020 (1:36 PM AEDT), the stock of SPT traded at $0.655, up1.55 percent. SPT has been performing well with a positive return of 17.27 percent in the last six months.
