The Supervisory Board of TNT Express today announced that Marie-Christine Lombard, CEO of TNT Express, has tendered her resignation, which was accepted by the Supervisory Board, to pursue an external career opportunity. She will leave the company by the end of September.
The Supervisory Board has asked the current CFO, Bernard Bot, to take over as interim CEO. Mary Harris, member of the Supervisory Board, will be available to offer advice and support to Bernard and the rest of the management team.
According to the Supervisory Board this development has no bearing on the intended merger with UPS, which they expect to complete in early 2013.
S&P lowers UPS rating on pension obligations, TNT Express deal:S&P lowered its investment-grade rating on UPS to A+ from AA-pointing to the increased exposure to multiemployer pension plans and the impact of its pending US$ 6.8bn acquisition of TNT Express to its credit metrics.
Conclusion:We weren’t anticipating Mrs. Lombard to leave the company this early in the takeover-process. Still it does not come as a real surprise and some may even read in her tender for resignation confidence that the take-over by UPS will succeed.