By DANIEL RIORDAN
With refreshing candour, Metlifecare's new chief executive, Gavin Aleksich, admits his reasons for granting an interview - a slumping share price and the need to fill an information vacuum.
The former nurse admits the company's low profile is partly to blame for the market going cold on the retirement village and nursing home operator.
To that can be added Metlifecare's poor financial performance over the past two years and the abrupt and unexplained departure in June of its last boss, Mark Russell, after only 14 months at the helm.
Mr Aleksich, aged 36, who stepped into his new role at the end of last year after consulting to the company for four months, said he could not shed any light on the circumstances of his predecessor's departure.
"That's between him and the board, and I honestly don't know the reasons."
But he is happy to talk about his own career path, which started when the Tauranga boy left home for the big lights of Auckland and a diploma in comprehensive nursing.
He found nursing work stimulating, but being in the wards every second weekend and every third set of week nights proved a substantial lifestyle dampener.
That old devil called ambition had the final say.
"I enjoyed the sector's dynamics and I could see there was a paucity of management skills and knowledge. But I knew it would take forever to make it through to management unless I stepped outside and got some financial and management training."
So he joined Coopers & Lybrand's accountancy cadet scheme just before the 1987 sharemarket crash, completing his BCom over four years of mainly part-time study.
His timing was perfect.
By the time he graduated, Health Minister Simon Upton's reforms had the sector clamouring for financial expertise.
Mr Aleksich's first job was overhauling financial systems at Middlemore Hospital as it evolved into South Auckland Health.
Overseeing the purse strings of a $150 million turnover organisation was a fine start to a new career, but perhaps the most significant legacy of his time at South Auckland was his introduction to chief executive Lester Levy.
The wunderkind of the new-style health sector, now chief executive of Ascot Hospital, became a mentor to Mr Aleksich - a role that has continued for the past decade.
"Lester can spot talent and attract it. And he's not afraid to surround himself with people who will challenge him."
A year helping Roche Pharmaceuticals gear up for the Government's new drug-purchasing regime split two stints at South Auckland, where he finished as business development manager, before he followed Mr Levy to the new health sector investor Calan Corporate Services.
Just under a year ago, Mr Aleksich joined the corporate advisory section of accountants Ferrier Hodgson, looking to broaden his experience.
One of his first assignments was advising Metlifecare on its financial restructuring as the company re-examined its corporate vision.
One of the first companies to try to capitalise on New Zealand's growing demand for large-scale professional geriatric healthcare, Metlifecare has led a chequered existence since being floated on the sharemarket by founder Cliff Cook in 1994.
The Securities Commission criticised it for listing before its management and reporting structures were ready, and overly aggressive expansion in a flat property market over the past couple of years has been a big factor in its poor financial performance.
If the company disappointed the market with its net profit of $8.5 million in 1998, its $1.5 million return in 1999 was a real shocker.
Worse was to come. In the six months to June 30, it lost $1.3 million as it continued to restructure. Its full-year result for 2000, due next month, will have it still in the red.
None of which can provide much joy for its shareholders, who include Mr Cook, Todd Capital and Eric Watson.
The share price has languished around $1, compared with $2.25 a year ago - clearly an unsatisfactory situation for investors.
Mr Aleksich, the company's fourth chief executive since listing (after Mr Cook, Canadian Robert Opiat and Mr Russell), is promising a return to profit in 2001 as the company enacts the plan developed at the end of Mr Russell's tenure and fleshed out under his consultancy.
"The company has the right formula for success, but it needs to focus back to being an operator, not a developer."
Problems with the late development of some of its newer facilities have eaten into profitability, leaving the company rich in assets but with poor profits.
A slow property market hasn't helped - Metlifecare's elderly customers will hold off selling their houses and moving into its facilities if they can't get the price they want.
Those facilities comprise 13 retirement villages and 511 beds in nursing homes and hospitals, with close to 800 staff looking after about 2000 clients - double the company's size at its listing in 1994.
Mr Aleksich got the job after a six-month international search, pipping an English candidate.
After four months developing the company's reform package in a consulting role, he knew exactly what was needed and could hit the ground running, while the board had a good idea of his capabilities.
But he knows celebration is a long way off.
"I came across a saying the other day - 'Words are words, promises are promises, undertakings are undertakings, but only performance is real.'
"That's the situation here."
Healthy attitude to mammoth task
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