EMI names new finance crew amid profits warning
Music publishing giant EMI Group has today announced the appointment of new chief financial officers for the group and its subsidiary business, EMI Recorded Music.
Roger Faxon, formerly the CFO at EMI Music Publishing has been appointed group CFO, a change which has immediate effect, while Stuart Ells will take over as CFO at EMI Recorded Music at the end of February, when he leaves Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, where he is currently chief of finance.
Both Faxon and Ellis succeed Tony Bates who, since January 2000, has combined the role of Group FD with that of executive vice president and CFO of EMI Recorded Music. In a statement, the company said Bates was leaving EMI by ‘mutual agreement’.
A successor for Roger Faxon at EMI Music Publishing is expected shortly.
The re-organisation of the finance function at EMI comes at the same time as it warned profit before tax, amortisation and exceptional items for the year ending 31 March 2002 were now expected to be in the order of £150m, well below market estimates of between £160m to £207m.
EMI blamed the reduced earnings expectations on lower sales forecasts, ‘adverse exchange rate movements, and some specific one-off costs’.
The company said its music recording business was effected by the ‘continuing economic downturn in Latin America and Asia, underperformance in the USA and the slippage of some important Japanese album releases into the next financial year’.
Chairman and CEO Alain Levy said: ‘Missing a target is not good news – but most important for EMI is the shape of things to come. We are on a path to reshaping the Recorded Music group and we are very positive about the future.’
EMI shares slid on the news and were last quoted at 310p, down nearly 5% on the day.
