Whatman ousts chief and two directors over £10m write-down

Whatman, the struggling filter producer, yesterday announced sweeping boardroom changes including the immediate resignation of its chief executive ahead of an expected £10m write-down this year due to ongoing problems at its blood transfusion business.

Tim Coombs, the chief executive of Whatman, left the company yesterday after mounting criticism from investors that a restructuring the company embarked on one year ago has failed to address heavy losses and strategic weaknesses in some parts of the business.

Bob Thian, who was appointed non-executive chairman of Whatman in October, will stand in as head of the company until a replacement for Mr Coombs is found within the next three to six months.

Mr Thian said: "Tim's time is up. I am acting one year after he was in place as the person in charge of the factories restructuring. But it was running late and not tightly managed."

Mr Coombs is negotiating with Whatman over a potential compensation pay-out and was last year paid £225,000.

His departure comes just three months after City institutions forced out the chairman Simon May. Two non-executive directors, Dr Mary Good and Sorrell Mathes, also resigned yesterday with immediate effect.

Whatman, which makes a range of products for the biotech industry, has struggled to turn around its blood transfusion business, HemaSure, which it bought in February last year for $13m (£8.6m). HemaSure made revenue of £200,000 in 2001 but racked up losses of £3.3m.

City observers believe Mr Thian will decide to cut Whatman's losses at HemaSure by selling it and will also carry out a "thorough strategic review" of the entire company.

Mr Thian will accelerate the company's stated aim of slashing its manufacturing sites from 16 to six. He said he expected this year's results to contain a write-down "north of £10m". There would also be provisions relating to "housekeeping matters".

The shares hit 362p two years ago on the back of lucrative contracts relating to the Human Genome Project but have since fallen. Yesterday they slipped 3p to 76p, valuing Whatman at £96m. Whatman's interim pre-tax profit slumped to £1.5m from £3.5m, even though sales slipped just £1m to £44.4m.