Leslie Van de Walle, the chief executive of Rexam, is leaving the packaging company with a £1.6 million payoff.
The Frenchman, who has led the FTSE 100 company for three years, said that he was retiring and had not been ousted by the board. Shares in Rexam fell by 3.6 per cent to 278.43p today.
The company has had a turbulent year and had to carry out a £351 million rights issue in the summer in order to preserve its investment grade debt rating. It also declined to pay an interim dividend this year.
Mr Van de Walle, 53, will be replaced by Graham Chipchase, the director of its plastic packaging arm and a former group finance director.
Rexam has been hit especially hard by consumer weakness in Russia, where it has had a 90 per cent share of the can market since the $297 million (£181 million) purchase last year of Rostar. However, in order to secure approval for the deal from Russia’s competition authorities, Rexam had to agree to make a substantial capital investment in Rostar, providing a further drag on its profitability
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Mr Van de Walle, a former Shell executive, said that he was leaving to pursue his non-executive directorships. He already sits on the board of the insurer Aviva.
The company, which is chaired by Peter Ellwood, the former Lloyds chief executive, wanted someone in the top job who would lead the business through the new few years. Mr Van de Walle did not want to commit for that long.
Rexam also issued a trading update in which it said that results had been in line with its expectations in recent months and that it was confident of meeting a £278 million market forecast for full-year underlying pre-tax profit.