A demerger of the fast-growing, high-tech end of Cookson, the industrial group, has ended badly for its chief executive who has been asked to leave after a clash over future strategy.
Alent, the performance materials group whose soldering paste makes the semiconductor chips work in iPhones, LED lighting systems and the software systems in cars, was cut loose from Vesuvius, the heavy engineering firm and its sister company in Cookson, at Christmas 2012.
However, after 21 months in the role, Steve Corbett, the former Cookson performance materials chief chosen to run Alent, was found not to be the right person to head the listed company.
Alent board members did not believe he had the talents to lead a mergers and acquisitions-based expansion of the firm.
It is likely that a clash over how to lead the company will have involved Lars Forberg, a non-executive director and co-founder of Cevian Capital, the activist investor which had agitated for the break up of Cookson and which has retained a 21 per cent holding in Alent.
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In a statement, Peter Hill, Alent’s chairman who made the decision to part company with Mr Corbett, said: “[Mr Corbett] stabilised the business, developed and grew it, and oversaw Alent’s transition into becoming a publicly-traded, specialty chemicals company. Since Alent’s separate listing, Steve has played an important role in laying the groundwork for its long-term future.”
Mr Corbett was paid £617,000 last year, but his redundancy settlement could be more generous than just one year’s money as future share plan payouts could have been worth more than £2 million a year.
During his tenure, Alent saw its share go from a first day close of 309p to 397p in a matter of weeks before drifting sideways. Last night the shares closed at 345p, off 6p on the day. Last month the company announced a £42 million, 15p a share special dividend on top of its 3p interim dividend for a half year in which underlying pre-tax profits rise 14 per cent to £42 million.
The departure of Mr Corbett was so swift that Mr Hill had not lined up a replacement. Instead, a divisional head, Rick Ertmann, like Mr Corbett an American, has been appointed interim chief executive.
Alent remains on the “key buy” list of Liberum, the small-cap broker, which says the shares are unfairly trading at a 13 per cent discount to its peers. It says the company has scope to bulk up with £200 million of firepower for acquisitions.