Scenarios and Things to Come during 2006

Mackay has had enough at Kingfisher
By Harry Wallop (Filed: 20/12/2005)


Sir Francis Mackay will announce today that he is standing down as chairman of Kingfisher, the B&Q owner, rounding off a terrible year for the businessman.



He will hand over to Peter Jackson, the former chief executive of Associated British Foods, in May next year.

Sir Francis has been under mounting pressure all year as a result of the two chairmanships that he holds of FTSE 100 companies. He announced in May that he would stand down as chairman at Compass, which has become entangled in the oil-for-food scandal at the United Nations.

Kingfisher, which previously had been one of the more reliable performers in the retail sector, has this year suffered from the DIY slowdown and competition from smaller, niche operators.

Kingfisher's shares have been the worst-performing stocks on the FTSE 100 this year, falling 24pc since the start of January. Compass has been the third-worst performer, falling 10.5pc.

Last night a spokesman for Kingfisher denied that Sir Francis, 61, had left because of the mounting pressure. "He's retiring. In May he will have been chairman for four and a half years. He'd like to move on and do different things," he said.

It is understood that he's interested in moving into the private equity arena, away from the glare of the public markets.

The timing of his departure at Kingfisher is unfortunate. Up until 12 months ago his reputation at the DIY group was pretty unblemished, having successfully restructured the company. Under his tenure the company bought out its minority stake in French retailer Castorama, demerged Kesa, the electrical chain and reshaped the board. Most notably he bought in Gerry Murphy as the new chief executive.

Mr Jackson, 58, stepped down from ABF in March and is well liked in the City. He lay the foundations for the astonishing success of cheap clothing chain Primark and was admired for diversifying into a range of well-known food brands such as Ovaltine.