MOSCOW (MRC) -- Gregory R. Friedman will retire as executive vice president and CFO of Corteva once a suitable replacement is identified, reported Chevweek with reference to Corteva's announcement.
Friedman joined DuPont in 2001 as CFO of an electronics joint venture and would eventually be named head of finance for DuPont’s agriculture division and vice president/DuPont investor relations. He moved into his current role when Corteva was spun out of DowDuPont in 2019.
"Corteva has a strategy that is working, as its industry-leading pipeline continues to drive growth and the benefits of our work over the past few years will accelerate earnings improvement starting this year,” Friedman said in a statement. “With the company well-positioned to deliver a strong 2021 and on track to deliver on its mid-term targets, I felt the completion of the Company's fourth quarter earnings was the right time to announce my retirement from Corteva.”
The announcement comes just a few weeks after activist investor Starboard Value LP (New York, New York) nominated eight directors to Corteva’s board, aiming for a majority in a bid to end what it calls a “disappointing leadership tenure” for CEO Jim Collins. “His track record stretching further back has also been littered with missed expectations and promises, leading us to believe that this current spell of mediocrity is simply the continued manifestation of a preexisting condition,” Starboard says. “Simply stated, if Corteva were looking to hire a new CEO and Jim was proposed as a candidate, based on his track record, we would not interview him.”
The eight Starboard nominees include James Gallogly, former CEO of LyondellBasell, and Kerry Preete, a former top executive at Monsanto. It also includes former Dow agchems vice president Janet Gisselman; former Rohm and Haas CFO Jacques Croisetiere; and Jeffrey Smith, Starboard’s CEO. If all eight nominees were elected, Starboard would have effective control of Corteva’s board, which has 12 members.
As MRC wrote previously, Corteva swung to a surprise gain in the fourth-quarter of 2020, reporting adjusted earnings of USD0.04 per share - down 43% year-on-year (YOY) but beating the analysts’ consensus estimate for a loss of $0.03/share, as reported by Zachs Investment Research. The company reported net earnings of USD43 million for the seasonally weak quarter, up from a loss of USD18 million in the year-ago quarter, on early seed sales in North America. Net sales increased 7.5% YOY, to USD3.2 billion, as volumes increased 10% on adoption of new and differentiated crop protection products.
We remind that in late January 2020, DuPont de Nemours, Inc., Corteva, Inc. and The Chemours Company announced that they had entered into a binding memorandum of understanding containing a settlement to resolve legal disputes originating from the 2015 spin-off of Chemours from E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (EID). Cmpanies aimed to establish a cost sharing arrangement and an escrow account to be used to support and manage potential future legacy per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) liabilities arising from events prior to 1 July 2015, the day the spin-off was completed.
We also remind that DuPont is investing USD400 million in the production capacity of Tyvek nonwoven fabric made from high density polyethylene (HDPE) at its site in Luxembourg. A new building and a third work line at the production site will be constructed. The launch of new facilities is scheduled for 2021.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's HDPE production totalled about 1,824,800 tonnes in 2020, up 90% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in the output,.
MRC