Hanson spin-off names new directors
Simon Duffy, group finance director of EMI, has joined Imperial Tobacco as one of three new non-executive directors ahead of the group’s demerger from Hanson on 1 October.
The other non-executives joining Imperial Tobacco are former Courtaulds CEO Sipko Huismans and Sir David Hardy, who adds to a long list of directorships with a return to the company he worked for in the 1960s. Hardy was chairman of the 100 Group of chartered accountants from 1986-88.
Coopers & Lybrand is the auditor and reporting accountant to Imperial Tobacco. Price Waterhouse in New Jersey provided the independent accountants’ report for Millennium Chemicals’ information statement, which is also due to demerge on 1 October with a New York Stock Exchange listing.
The Energy Group, which will demerge from Hanson early next year, has yet to announce its auditors and reporting accountants.
Total costs and fees for all professional advisers involved in all three demergers have been estimated at # 90m, though Hanson has declined to give a breakdown of this figure. In July, the company said that ‘headline’ fees for merchant banks and stockbrokers would be around # 20m.