Pic--Rakesh Kapoor is the chief executive of consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser
Business correspondent(wp/es):::
Reckitt Benckiser’s divisive chief executive Rakesh Kapoor on Wednesday revealed he will leave the consumer goods giant, where he has worked since 1987.
The 60-year-old, who has been at the helm of the Nurofen, Clearasil and Durex maker for eight years, will retire at the end of 2019.
He said: “I believe now is a good time for new leadership to take this great company through the next phase of outperformance.”
The board has started a search for a successor. Shares in Reckitt Benckiser fell 204p to 6048p.
His departure will bring an end to a reign which has been far from smooth. The boss has faced shareholder revolts over his package, and in 2017 his pay was voluntarily slashed by £11 million, although he still pocketed £12.5 million in salary and bonuses.
Kapoor, who is one of only a handful of BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) bosses at FTSE firms, also had to grapple with a string of setbacks in recent years.
There was a cyber-attack that hit factories, and Reckitt Benckiser was hurt by a scandal in South Korea over the sale of a toxic product linked to almost 100 deaths.
The chief executive looked to boost the business in 2017, growing in China with the $17 billion purchase of baby formula maker Mead Johnson, and he last year created two divisions to drive growth: health, and hygiene and home.
RBC analyst James Edwardes Jones said during Kapoor’s time as leader Reckitt Benckiser’s share price has outperformed the “European consumer staples sector by 9%, but over the last three years it’s underperformed by 13%”. He added: “One could argue on this basis that it is time for a change at the top.”
But Investec’s Eddy Hargreaves said it “seems an unusual juncture for Kapoor to leave” given the recent changes he made.
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