Crawford out, Riedl in as CentralNic chief executive

Internet software company CentralNic announced the appointment of group chief financial officer Michael Riedl as group chief executive officer on Monday, with immediate effect.

The AIM-traded firm said Riedl was succeeding Ben Crawford, who was retiring from the board.

Crawford was appointed group CEO in 2009, and having overseen its initial public offering in 2013, had since taken it from a niche registry service provider to a “substantial market leader” in online presence and marketing services.

During his tenure, revenues had grown to $700m from $2m, alongside strong profits and cash generation.

Riedl, meanwhile, was appointed group CFO in February 2019, following its acquisition of KeyDrive, where he had been finance chief since 2011.

The CentralNic board said he had “strong financial and operational experience” across the group, together with a “wide and in-depth knowledge” of its markets as a whole.

William ‘Billy’ Green, group financial director, would succeed Riedl as group CFO, initially in a non-board capacity.

CentralNic’s directors said they expected that Green would be asked to join the board in due course.

They said Green, a UK-qualified Chartered Accountant and University of Oxford graduate, had “decisively contributed” to the acceleration of its reporting cycle as well as improved analytical insights such as segregation of organic from acquisitive growth since 2019, and the successful refinancing of its bond debt in October this year.

“On behalf of the board, I thank Ben for his many years of excellent service to the company,” said chairman Iain McDonald.

“It has been a privilege to oversee him growing and skilfully pivoting CentralNic into the outstanding company it is today.

“We appreciate his foresight to build a strong team around him which was immensely helpful to the board.”

McDonald said Riedl, meanwhile, had brought “a wealth of industry experience and excellent strategic and leadership skills” to CentralNic, adding that he was “delighted” that he would be its new CEO.

“He has impressed the board with the impact he has made over the last four years, where he has brought clarity, structure and focus, with the combination of skills and experience to lead the business through its next strategic phase.

“We congratulate Billy Green, a well proven member of CentralNic's senior leadership team, on his appointment as CFO.

“We know he will successfully continue pursuing excellence in our financial processes and be an excellent contact for the financial community.”

CentralNic said it was making the changes from a “continued position of strength”.

Following its third-quarter update on 22 November, the company confirmed that trading had remained “robust”, adding that it was anticipating a full-year outcome at least in line with the upper end of market expectations.

The business was “highly cash-generative”, the board said, which had allowed it to execute its merger and acquisition agenda, and at the same time improve its net debt position.

Having achieved those two objectives, it said it now intended to launch a maiden share buyback before the end of the year, with details to be announced “shortly”.

Looking forward, the directors said the company would review its approach to cash flow deployment, and expected a greater focus on returns to shareholders versus mergers and acquisitions.

“I have every confidence in Michael Riedl, my close business partner for the past four years, and his team to continue the extraordinary growth and cash conversion that are key to CentralNic's investment case,” said outgoing CEO Ben Crawford.

“I will remain an enthusiastic shareholder and supporter of the company for many years to come.”

CentralNic said it would announce its fourth quarter trading update on 30 January.

At 0929 GMT, shares in CentralNic Group were up 4.58% at 137p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.