(Alliance News) - System1 Group PLC on Friday said James Geddes will step down from the role of chief financial officer effective from April 20, to be succeeded by Chris Willford.
"I would like to thank James for 17 years of remarkable service to the company. James and I have worked shoulder-to-shoulder to build the company over many years and, on behalf of everyone involved, I am extremely grateful for James' many years of hard work and enormous contribution," said Chief Executive John Kearon.
Willford was previously group treasurer at British Airways. He was also previously finance director of Corporate Bank and UK Retail Bank at Barclays PLC.
"Change is never easy but someone of the calibre and experience of Chris is a worthy and able successor to help the company achieve its ambitions. In the past decade, Chris has worked as a consultant with a portfolio of scale up businesses facing similar challenges to those of System1. I'd like to take the opportunity to welcome Chris to the company," Kearon added.
In February, System1 said trading in the fourth quarter of financial 2020 had been disappointing as it said it will return GBP1.5 million through a share buyback programme, despite issuing a profit warning for financial 2020.
The London-based company is predicting a slight year-on-year drop in gross profit for its financial year ending March 31. Combined with increased investment costs, normalised pretax profit - which excludes share based payments and AdRatings database - is anticipated to be materially below current market expectations.
In financial 2019, System1's gross profit amounted to GBP22.1 million and underlying pretax profit, excluding AdRatings, totaled GBP3.7 million.
The stock was untraded on Friday afternoon in London, last quoted at 125.00 pence a share.
By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com
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System1 Group (SYS1)
