Sacked for 'not moving fast enough'

Denis Hennequin has been sacked by the company's board and replaced by a trio of executives. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

THE chairman and chief executive of French hotel group Accor has been sacked by the company's board and replaced by a trio of executives.

In a company statement after an emergency board meeting, Accor said board members had taken note of reservations by Denis Hennequin on company strategy and "had thus unanimously put an end to his mandate effective April 23, 2013".

The board of Accor - Europe's biggest hotel group and owner of chains Ibis, Mercure and Sofitel - is dominated by private equity groups Colony Capital and Eurozeo which have grown increasingly dissatisfied with Hennequin, a celebrated French executive hired away from McDonald's Europe two years ago.

The impending eviction of Hennequin had been reported by several media sources for days and sent shares in Accor tumbling two per cent on Tuesday despite the market soaring more than three per cent overall.

Centre to the rift between Hennequin and his board was a strategy demanded by Colony and Eurozeo for Accor to unload its property holdings in order to turn itself into a hotel franchise business.

Hennequin was carrying out this mandate, but not fast enough for the activist funds that together own about 20 per cent of Accor.

Analysts at Barclays said tensions had grown too great between the entrepreneurial minded Hennequin and activist fund managers seeking quick financial performance.

Hennequin had himself replaced the previous chief executive Gilles Pelisson who was also suddenly sacked in 2010.
Hennequin "will be replaced by a transition leadership of Philippe Citerne as chairman, Sebastian Bazin as deputy chairman and Yann Caillere as chief executive," the company said.

Citerne is a former top banker at Societe Generale and currently an Accor board member. Bazin is head of Colony Capital and Caillere is Accor deputy chief executive.

View the original article here

$1m in super may not be enough

Superannuation delays are annoying fund members. Source: Supplied

ANY Federal Government move on superannuation risks setting the retirement system up for failure, national accounting firm Chan & Naylor warns.

Superannuation is again on the political agenda amid ongoing speculation the Labor Government could again rejig superannuation tax concessions, particularly for high earners, in the May Budget.

While Prime Minister Julia Gillard has ruled out tax changes on withdrawals by those with higher balances, the Government has so far declined to respond to other concerns.

Chan & Naylor director Ken Raiss says those holding $1 million in retirement savings are under the spotlight.

"During recent weeks of political tax-grab barracking, the government has successfully managed to stigmatise Australian retirees who have managed to set aside their own monies for independent retirement," he said today.

At the same time, the Government risked eroding confidence in superannuation.

While $1 million was a considerable sum in today's terms, once medical and aged care costs are factored in it could be inadequate.

Chan & Naylor forecasts a $1 million pension fund in today's money will need to be at least $2.5 million in 30 years time.

"In simple terms, Australians are going to need more retirement income and the government of the day is doing surprisingly little to help," Mr Raiss said.

Meanwhile, a survey by human resources consultants Aon Hewitt shows 58 per cent of businesses are still to determine how they will respond to increases in the superannuation guarantee for low paid workers.

The guarantee will initially rise to 9.25 per cent, from nine per cent, from July 1 this year. It will then continue to increase incrementally to 12 per cent by 2019/20.

View the original article here