Centaur spends two years looking for a CEO to replace 70 year old Graham Sherren (pictured) and comply with Higgs, and then appoints the bloke who sits next to him! There is nothing wrong with this of course, except that in practice it almost certainly means that nothing very much changes. The new CEO is Geoff Wilmott. and he is an excellent executive. Nevertheless he is the bag carrier for Sherren and will probably exert no more influence on the direction of the business than he has done in the past as the CFO. Shareholders have missed a golden opportunity.
However, the pre close trading results are at first sight impressive and have pushed the share price up 3% in early trading. The management claim a double digit revenue growth. It will be interesting to see how much of this is from acquisitions and how much from organic growth - especially when the pre close statement brags about growth in internet recruitment. When the full numbers are published we will have a detailed look at them and report wheher they are a barometer for the future of business media.
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