The Lendlease Group (ASX: LLC) share price has lifted slightly in early afternoon trade after a rollercoaster ride this morning in the wake of a leadership announcement.
At the time of writing, shares in the international property and infrastructure company have regained lost ground to trade at $12.12, up 0.17%.
CEO succession
Lendlease today advised that its Group CEO and managing director Steve McCann will retire in May. This marks the end of a 16-year tenure with more than 12 years as head of the company.
To ensure a smooth transition, the board has appointed the company's Asia CEO, Tony Lombardo, to the reins. This succession will take place on 31 May 2021 when Mr McCann retires from the company.
Lendlease said Mr Lombardo had gained a wealth of experience through his 25-year career. He has worked across real estate development, investment management, finance, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and strategy in Australia and internationally.
Mr Lombardo joined the company in 2007 and took up the role of group head of strategy and M&A. This entailed a refocus on Lendlease's overall business strategy, which saw several initiatives being implemented.
More recently, Mr Lombardo was appointed CEO of Asia, where he drove Lendlease's growth strategy. This included completion of Singapore's S$3.7 billion Paya Lebar Quarter mixed-use development, and the establishment of a US$1 billion data centres joint venture. In addition, Mr Lombardo was involved in listing a S$1 billion global commercial REIT on the Singapore Exchange.
Words from the management team
Lendlease chair Michael Ullmer, touched on Mr McCann's retirement, saying:
Steve has played an instrumental role in spearheading Lendlease's transformation, focusing on our integrated business model in targeted global gateway cities.
Under Steve's leadership, the group's global development pipeline has grown to more than $110 billion including twenty-two major urbanisation projects across ten of the world's most iconic cities.
Regarding Mr Lombardo's appointment to the role, Mr Ullmer said:
Tony will commence in his new role as the group pursues its revised strategy focusing on leveraging its competitive edge in the development and delivery of large-scale, mixed-use urbanisation projects and growing the investments platform.
Tony's time as CEO Asia, as well as prior roles including Group CFO, make him eminently qualified to lead Lendlease into the future.
About the Lendlease share price
The Lendlease share price has fallen more than 32% in the last 12 months. Its shares dropped to a multi-year low of $9.34 in March, before moving sideways for much of the remaining period.
Lendlease has a market capitalisation of around $8.2 billion based on the current share price.
