Frank Kern Leaves Altran. Stock Down 8%
Altran has announced today that Frank Kern, previously the CEO of Aricent, had retired ‘” from his role of Chairman of Altran North America.” Stock markets reacted badly to the news and sent the stock down 8%.
Stock markets remain cautious about the performance of Altran, since its acquisition of Aricent in Q1 2018, and the discovery of USD 10 in forged revenues during the summer. Altran continues to suffer, and its market cap is down to ~EUR 1.95bn. By comparison, Alten has a market of EUR 2.7bn.
The exit of Mr. Kern is probably not much an issue. Mr. Kern had had the CEO role at Aricent, and previously managed activities at IBM representing approximately $19bn in revenues. In all likelihood, the chairmanship of Altran North America, a sub EUR 1bn business did not carry enough responsibility to keep Mr. Kern interested. His exit, roughly eight months, after the actual sale of Aricent, occurs within a usual timeframe.
In other words, the exit of Mr. Kern was to be expected.