NZ Refining chief Sjoerd Post to leave at the end of July

Tuesday 27th February 2018

New Zealand Refining chief executive Sjoerd Post will leave the Marsden Point refinery operator at the end of July after five years in the role.

The Whangarei-based company announced Post's decision, saying the five months until his departure provides time to recruit a new CEO and allow for an orderly transition. Post came on board at the start of 2013, coinciding with a squeeze in global refining margins. Under his watch, the company completed its $365 million Te Mahi Hou upgrade and extension to boost production, and more recently dealt with the outages on the refinery-to-Auckland pipeline.

The share price has declined 6.3 percent, or 16 cents, since then, recently trading at $2.38, and has paid 47 cents per share in dividends, not including whatever it declares in tomorrow's annual earnings result.

"Sjoerd has made an outstanding contribution over the length of his tenure, building a culture that is now strongly evident in the performance and resilience of the business," chair Simon Allen said in a statement. "The board is pleased that Sjoerd has confirmed he will remain in the business for the next few months, seeing us through the succession process and a number of critical work programmes - including our impending refinery shutdown and the government inquiry into the pipeline incident."

Forsyth Barr analyst Andrew Harvey-Green forecasts NZ Refining will report a 73 percent gain in annual profit to $81.6 million tomorrow on a 16 percent increase in revenue to $410.6 million. He also predicts the board will declare a final dividend of 8 cents per share, up from 6 cents a year earlier.

(BusinessDesk)

Comments from our readers

No comments yet