Homebase FD set to cash in
The finance director of DIY retailer Homebase looks set to share in a multimillion pound windfall, after last week's purchase of the company by Argos owner GUS.
Link: Finance director: Chris Woodhouse
Chris Woodhouse, who earlier this month shared the title of Accountancy Age financial director of the year with Manchester Commonwealth Games FD David Leather, is one of the members of the management team that could cash in on up to £40m as a result of the £900m takeover of the DIY chain. Woodhouse is part of a 60-strong management team, headed by chief executive Rob Templeman, that has an 11% shareholding in Homebase. Both Templeman and Woodhouse, who were credited with revitalising the DIY chain since it separated from supermarket giant Sainsbury, are to be replaced by GUS employees. But both will stay with Homebase until Easter 2003 in order to provide help over the peak Christmas trading period. The new business will fall under the remit of (above left to right) GUS finance director David Tyler, chief executive John Peace and Terry Duddy, chief executive of ARG, formerly GUS home shopping.