(Reuters) – Chemours on Wednesday placed its top three executives, including CEO Mark Newman, on administrative leave and said it was looking into potential material weaknesses in its financial reporting, sending its shares plunging 26% in premarket trade.
The weaknesses also included the effectiveness of the “tone at the top” set by certain members of senior management, the chemicals maker said, adding CFO Jonathan Lock and Principal Accounting Officer Camela Wisel were the other two executives to be placed on leave.
The review also prompted the company to further delay the reporting of its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, without disclosing a new date. The company said earlier this month said it would delay its results to Feb. 28.
Chemours named company insiders Denise Dignam as CEO and Matt Abbott as CFO on an interim basis.
Brokerage Jefferies says administrative leave of Chemours’ CEO, CFO and controller is a negative that is compounded by the delay in releasing year-end financials.
The company said it needs additional time to complete the reporting process and added it expects preliminary net sales of about $6 billion for the year ended Dec. 31, compared with net sales of $6.8 billion last year.
Chemours also expects to report a net loss for the year ended Dec. 31, within the $225 million-$235 million range, compared with net income attributable to Chemours for 2022 of $578 million.
(Reporting by Jahnavi Nidumolu and Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Anil D’Silva)
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