Anite finance director quits following disarray over acquisitions

Anite Group, the IT consultancy and services business yesterday parted company with its finance director, Simon Hunt, after a string of acquisitions he oversaw had to be renegotiated.

While the company said Mr Hunt, who is also company secretary, had resigned to "pursue other interests", it is thought he had come under shareholder pressure to quit.

"They [fund managers] expressed discomfort [with the structure of past acquisitions] and Anite have listened and acted accordingly," one City source said.

The move sent shares in the company spiralling down 17 per cent during the day, but the shares ended unchanged at 26p. Investors fear Mr Hunt's replacement could uncover further financial problems.

Simon Strong, an analyst at WestLB Panmure, said: "The market may be reading something negative into the finance director's departure in that any new appointee may review accounting policies."

Anite was forced to renegotiate recent acquisitions to settle its financial exposure after earn-out clauses left the cost of the deals open-ended.

The company said yesterday it would find a replacement for Mr Hunt, who had held the position since 1996.

Separately, Alec Daly, Anite's chairman, said he remained "confident" the company would perform "in line with management expectations" this year in the face of tough market conditions.

"Market conditions continue to be challenging and although we are only four months into the current financial year, we remain confident that for the year as a whole Anite will perform in line with management expectations," he said.

Speaking at the AGM, Mr Daly said trading in its telecoms division was ahead of its expectations while its consultancy arm was performing in line with expectations.

He also said the company was still reviewing its remuneration policy and that it expected to change the way that directors were rewarded.

"We expect there to be two principal changes arising from the review. First, to change the targets used in the calculation of bonuses from profits-based to earnings per share-based," it said. The second change it envisages would compare salary packages with 32 similar companies in the sector.