Former WS Atkins finance director Ric Piper has been blocked from taking up the same role at newspapers group Trinity Mirror.
At a board meeting earlier this week, the Trinity board concluded that many of the problems facing WS Atkins, whose shares slumped 72% after it issued a profits warning and news of 400 redundancies, lay at Piper’s door.
Piper met senior members of the Trinity board, and it was “mutually agreed” he would not take up his new post, which he was due to do today.
WS Atkins owns agent Lambert Smith Hampton, which it bought for £50m cash in 1999. The share price slump means WS Atkins is now worth a little under £54m.
EGi News 02/10/02
