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Reckitt in £2bn meltdown as Becht bows out

By Rupert Steiner for the Daily Mail
Updated: 03:38 EDT, 15 April 2011

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Benckiser saw £2bn wiped off the value of its shares after the shock announcement that chief executive Bart Becht is to retire at the age of just 54.

Bart Becht: Received record-breaking £90m in pay and shares in 2009

One of the City's best paid bosses, the Dutchman transformed what was once a boring household cleaning firm into a star of the Footsie.

Becht's plan to hang up his mop in September comes at a pivotal time for the firm which also makes Cillit Bang and Finish.

It is under pressure from higher raw material costs and recently flagged up lower market growth. It has also yet to fully integrate Durex maker SSl into the business following last year's £ 2.5bn acquisition.

Rakesh Kapoor, Reckitt's relatively unknown marketing chief, is to succeed Becht who will remain as an adviser until next year to ensure a smooth transition.

Becht's retirement comes just months after finance director Colin Day departed and leaves the consumer goods giant with untested executives in two of its most senior roles.

Day had long harboured ambitions for the top job sparking speculation he may have had some inkling he was about to be passed over as Becht's successor. The timing of the news spooked the City sending the shares down 251p to 3115p as analysts downgraded the stock.

Martin Deboo, an analyst at broker Investec, said: 'We see the surprise departure of chief executive Becht as a strongly negative event and downgrade from hold to sell.

'For us, it's hard to overstate his impact and we think Reckitt now faces an uncertain future. the chief executive and finance director are both new, growth in the core is decelerating, and the company is in the midst of two integrations.'

Becht was the architect of Reckitt success since its formation-from Reckitt & Colman's-takeover of Benckiser in December 1999.

Its shares have been one of the best performers in the Footsie, helping to make Becht the highest-paid chief executive in 2009. then the firm's soaring performance meant he took home a staggering £92m - an amount that was widely slammed by politicians as greedy.

But Becht has regularly donated the lion's share of his earnings to a variety of charities.

Kapoor, a 25-year veteran at Reckitt, started work with the firm in India and became its chief marketer five years ago.

He has been in charge of growing the firm's top 19 brands and his new salary has yet to be agreed.

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