DTZ confirms departures as bid fails to materialise
DTZ this morning confirmed the departure of its chief executive Paul Idzik and finance director Robert Rickert. Speculation is rife that the two had grown frustrated with the slow pace of a takeover agreement by 55% shareholder SGP. The French group is understood to be seeking to take DTZ private and then combine it with BNP Paribas Real Estate.
The board of DTZ has appointed the firm’s current head of UK and Ireland, John Forrester, as chief executive and has also named chief financial officer James Thomson as the new group finance director. Both have been appointed to the board.
In its statement to the London Stock Exchange this morning, DTZ merely noted today that discussions about bid approaches were ongoing and said that a further announcement would be made, “as appropriate, in due course”.
The Telegraph says that since DTZ confirmed in early May that it was in talks with SGP, the firm has struggled to recruit and retain key staff. The pair are believed to have decided to depart after the DTZ board failed to ask the Takeover Panel to issue a “put up or shut up” on SGP. The paper notes that the boardroom split has been exacerbated by the presence of three SGP representatives on the board. Property Week says it is now understood that a bid from SGP is “not currently seen as imminent”.
