Latest News

Johnson Matthey's largest investor requires tactical review, board reshuffle

Standard Investments, the biggest investor in UK's Johnson Matthey, on Monday urged the British autocatalyst maker to initiate a tactical evaluation and upgrade its board.

Requirement Investments, which holds an 11% stake in the London-listed company, sent out a letter resolving Johnson Matthey Chairman Patrick Thomas, stating the board and management have stayed contented and incapable of correcting a misdirected technique leading to sustained underperformance.

JM needs brand-new voices on its board prepared to take swift action and stopped the substantial value destruction that the current board and management have commanded, it stated in the letter.

Standard Investments also required actions to reduce the group's additional investment in hydrogen innovations, including prospective exit from that organization.

Johnson Matthey told Reuters that the business is looking. into it and will return.

The FTSE 250 company's shares, which have fallen more. than 20% this year, leapt as much as 6.6% on Monday by 1126. GMT.

Jefferies experts wrote in a note that the greatest concern. for Johnson Matthey was its failure to effectively translate. guaranteed totally free cash flow into real money.

In November, the centuries-old British business, which has. its roots in screening precious metals for pureness, missed. experts' expectations for first-half income and underlying. profit, amid a decrease in worldwide automobile production and a. suppressed Platinum Group Metals trading service.

Nevertheless, the company, which makes catalytic. converters and pollution filters for cars and trucks, had maintained its. outlook for the year ending March 31, helped by the progress in. its cost-cutting efforts and expectations of an enhanced. second-half period.

(source: Reuters)