Blackwell out, Barker in at Interserve

The Tory peer had announced his intention to step down in February, after nine years as chairman, but promised to remain until a successor was found.

Experienced director Glyn Barker will join the board on 1 January, and take over from Lord Blackwell on 1 March.
In a statement on Friday, Interserve outlined Barker’s “extensive experience as a business leader and adviser to FTSE 100 companies and their boards on a wide variety of corporate and finance issues.”

Barker is currently a non-executive director at Aviva and Berkeley Group Holdings, chairman of Irwin Mitchell and Transocean Partners, and deputy chairman of the English National Opera.

“I am delighted that Glyn has agreed to join the board. His experience in leading complex organisations and boards and of working closely with stakeholders will be a powerful asset for the company as it continues to grow”, said Interserve chief executive officer Adrian Ringrose.

The announcement came at the same time as the company’s third quarter trading update, which described “robustness” in the face of “mixed-market conditions”.

The update, which was light on figures, said its support services division was “performing well” and its equipment services business was delivering “outstanding growth, fuelled by strong demand and benefitting from the increased scale of the hire fleet.”

It did warn of loss-making UK energy projects in its construction division, which it put down to the cost and timing impact of sub-contractor insolvencies. Interserve said it expects a break-even performance in the UK construction business.

Interserve’s anticipated year-end debt remained unchanged in the range of £270-300m, and said it had secured 60% of consensus revenues as at the end of the quarter.