Online car dealer firm Auto Trader announces board shakeup with retirement of CEO
Online car ad group Auto Trader has promoted its finance boss as its new chief executive following the decision of the incumbent Trevor Mather's decision to retire.
Mather will retire from the positions of CEO and director on 31 March 2020, allowing Nathan Coe, who is the current chief operating and financial officer, to take his place, in what the company said was in line with its long-term succession planning.
In the meantime, Coe has been appointed CEO-designate and will continue to oversee finance functions until he assumes the full CEO role in 2020.
Shares were 1.14 per cent down this morning.
Read more: Auto Trader sales revved up in first year as a listed company
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, called Mather's decision a "blow for shareholders". He said Mather had helped lead the company through the IPO process in 2015 and had turned it into a "truly new media company" that had transformed from a "slightly dog-eared print product….to 100 per cent digital".
“It has not always been the smoothest drive but more recently the company and its shares have been really motoring, with the company joining the ranks of the FTSE 100 at the end of 2018," he said.
"The challenge for Coe will be to continue to grow earnings in a car market which appears to be softening faster than a punctured tyre.
“Growth has been heavily driven by upselling higher value subscription-based packages to retailers. This could be more difficult to achieve if these clients are facing engine trouble.”
Read more: Biggest IPOs of 2015 have beaten the FTSE 100
Meanwhile, the board shakeup will also see deputy chief financial officer Jamie Warner promoted to CFO-designate from 1 May 2019. He is expected to join the board in due course. Catherine Faiers, the current operations director, will be promoted to chief operations officer from 1 May 2019.
Auto Trader chairman Ed Williams said: "We are extremely fortunate to have such a natural and outstanding replacement for Trevor in the form of Nathan Coe. Nathan joined Auto Trader in 2007 to oversee the transition from a magazine business to being a purely digital company. He has been instrumental in shaping Auto Trader into one of the UK's leading digital businesses, and the Board is confident that he will be a worthy successor as CEO."