F&P chairman's departure a surprise

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Gary Paykel's replacement as Fisher & Paykel Appliances chairman by Ralph Waters has surprised investors given Mr Waters was set to leave the whiteware maker just months ago.

F&P is coming off a terrible year in which it was forced to raise $200.5 million and take on Chinese rival Haier as a cornerstone shareholder. This followed a debt blow-out and the breach of its banking covenants.

F&P said yesterday Mr Paykel was stepping down as chairman but remaining as a director. He is being replaced as chairman, in the short-term, by Mr Waters, a former Fletcher Building chief executive. Mr Waters, set to take over as Fletcher chairman next March, had said in May that he was quitting the F&P board.

However, in F&P's statement yesterday, Mr Waters said although he would not stay as chairman in the longer term, he would remain until some key decisions were made.

These include the appointment of a new chief executive to replace the long-serving John Bongard, and board refreshment.

Tyndall Investment Management equities manager Rickey Ward said the news of Mr Waters' temporary rise to chairman created uncertainty at F&P amid questions over whether his mind was with the company.

Goldman Sachs JBWere's head of asset management, Stephen Walker, said it was an unusual move that Mr Paykel was stepping down as chairman but staying on as a director.

F&P had previously said Mr Paykel, its former chief executive and son of F&P Industries co-founder Maurice Paykel, would leave the board no later than August 2012.

However, Mr Walker said it would be good for F&P to have an independent chairman to oversee appointing a chief executive, which the market expected to be acting chief executive Stuart Broadhurst.

Mr Waters' experience as managing director of Australian industrial group Email meant he was a good person to have on the board.

F&P's directors were in a board meeting yesterday afternoon and unavailable to comment.

The company has already appointed two Haier representatives and former fund manager Simon Botherway to its board this year.

Mr Paykel joined the then F&P Industries as an 18-year-old in 1960. In 2001 he helped oversee the group’s split into F&P Appliances and F&P Healthcare and remains chairman of the latter.

F&P Appliances is due to report interim results today.

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