Boral has parted company with Tino La Spina after 18 months as CFO

Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group is ringing in the changes at Boral, with an acceleration of ‘transformational change’ kicking off with the departure of Tino La Spina.

Boral chief financial officer Tino La Spina.

Boral has parted company with chief financial officer Tino La Spina after 18 months in the job, as Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group cements its influence on the company.

Mr La Spina joined Boral after serving 14 years as a Qantas executive. He was running the airline’s international division when the coronavirus pandemic hit and separated from Qantas in August 2020 when the company’s international fleet was grounded as pandemic restrictions bit.

At the time Mr La Spina was a high profile recruit for Boral boss Zlatko Todorcevski, who had only himself been appointed a few months earlier.

Boral said Mr La Spina had ceased as the company’s chief financial and strategy officer with immediate effect, but the company would issue its “notice of termination” on July 1.

Under Boral’s remuneration scheme Mr La Spina would be entitled to up to a full year’s payout for termination without cause.

Boral chairman Ryan Stokes said in a statement Jared Gashel, general manager of group finance and property, would assume the CFO role on an acting basis until a permanent replacement is found.

“We are committed to the ongoing transformation and operational improvement of Boral,” Mr Stokes said.

“With its focus now in Australia, the board has been working with management on what the business should look like, given its reduced operational footprint and size. In a tough external operating environment, we have decided to accelerate transformational change.”

Seven Group won control of Boral in 2021, reaching a shareholding just under 70 per cent, after a heated takeover battle revolving around returning Boral’s focus to its Australian operations after a disastrous expansion of its US business interests under the leadership of former chief executive Mike Kane.

Boral offloaded its US fly ash business for $US755m ($1bn) in December, having previously sold its US buildings products arm for $US2.15bn in July.

It also offloaded its Australian timber business for $64.5m and Meridian Brick company for $US125m as part of a corporate cull triggered by the arrival of Seven Group on its register, and Seven Group’s preference for an Australian focus for Boral’s business.

In February Boral announced a $US3bn capital return to shareholders, in the form of a $2.65 per share “capital reduction” scheme, plus an unfranked 7c per share dividend.

Seven Group took about $2.1bn of that windfall payout, based on its 70 per cent shareholding.

Boral booked a $145m net profit for the first half of the year, excluding the proceeds of the sale of its US businesses, down 12 per cent on the first half of the previous year.

Like other players in Australia’s superheated building and construction industry, Boral has been hit by supply chain constraints and rising fuel and labour costs.

In February the Sydney-based company said it had introduced “out of cycle” national price hikes to offset the impact of rising energy bills which it said it expected to remain high through the second half of the financial year.

But in March Boral downgraded expectations for its annual profit, saying heavy rains and flooding in NSW and Queensland had hit sales, with its outlook also undermined by continuing spikes in fuel and energy costs.

The company said it had hedging in place to limit the impact of fuel price rises unto April, with the Boral also suffering from ongoing supply constraints from rising fuel costs.

At the time Mr Todorcevski said the company now expects to book annual profits of $145m to $155m “assuming no further extraordinary rain events”.

Boral shares closed down 1c, or 0.3 per cent at $3.49 on Tuesday, against a modest gain in the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index.