(Reuters) – Rolls-Royce shareholder Causeway Capital Management has called on the British engine-maker’s incoming chair to refresh the board, the Financial Times reported.
“I really believe the board needs some fresh thinking. The company is facing some challenges,” Jonathan Eng, portfolio manager at Causeway Capital Management, told the Financial Times in an interview.
The California-based investment group is Rolls-Royce’s second-largest shareholder with an about 7% stake, behind Capital Research Global Investors which owns about 9%, as per Refinitiv data.
Causeway Capital could not be immediately reached by Reuters for a comment.
“We regularly review the effectiveness, composition and skillset of our Board, using independent advice and benchmarking,” a spokesperson for Rolls-Royce told Reuters.
Rolls-Royce said in June that Anita Frew would succeed Ian Davis as chair on Oct. 1. Frew, who would become the first woman to chair the company, will take over at a time when the British firm is undertaking cost-cuts and asset sales to repair its finances.
Revenues at Rolls’ civil aviation unit, its biggest business, tumbled as airlines stopped flying last year, resulting in a perilous few months before the company raised more cash and secured loans.
Rolls-Royce also needed to make sure it had the right expertise to tackle the decarbonisation challenge, Eng added.
(Reporting by Kannaki Deka in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
