MPs target ex-Carillion CFO Richard Adam over 拢776,000 share 'dump'
MPs say Richard Adam sold Carillion shares worth hundreds of thousands of pounds at the first opportunity after leaving the firm.
Monday 26 February 2018 11:38, UK
Carillion's former finance chief Richard Adam is under fire from MPs amid revelations he sold shares in the firm, raising almost 拢800,000, ahead of the company's collapse.
Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, Frank Field, accused him of "dumping" the stock at the first possible moment following his retirement in December 2016.
The Committee, which is conducting a joint inquiry with the Business Committee into the outsourcing company's failure in January, published the information after receiving evidence letters from both Mr Adam and his successor Zafar Khan.
It said that on 1 March 2017 Mr Adam sold his existing shareholding, which included performance awards of £277,000 that vested on his retirement, for £534,000.
Long-term incentive plan awards for 2014 were then sold on 8 May, the day they vested, for £242,000.
Those shares would have been worthless had he continued to hold them when the company was placed in compulsory liquidation with an estimated £900m funding shortfall in its pension scheme.
It has since been revealed by the Official Receiver that while 8,000 jobs have been saved, a total of 1,371 have been made redundant.
:: Regulator and auditors 'spectators' on Carillion
Mr Adam explained: "I sold the shares that I was eligible to sell when I was invited to do so by the company as I retired.
"More than half of the shares in the company that I had an interest in at retirement have been lost as a result of the company entering liquidation."
Mr Field responded: "Mr Adam presided over Carillion's finances for a decade.
"He, more than anyone else, ought to know the merits of Carillion shares as a long-term investment in the light of his lengthy and lucrative tenure.
"His assessment? Dumping the last of his shares at the first possible moment because he is - with his own money at least - 'risk averse'.
"What conclusions are we to draw from that?"
Mr Khan was in his role for just eight months.
His contract was terminated last September after, the committees said, he had "spooked" Carillion's board with a financial update a few days earlier that showed there had been a further decline in the company's position since an £845m contract write down in July 2017.
Mr Field added: "The other directors appear keen to set up the hapless Zafar Khan as the fall guy for the collapse.
"It is not lost on us, however, that he inherited Carillion's mountain of debt."