Feltex director cashes shares

Former Feltex director Craig Horrocks - who quit over severance payments to outgoing senior executives - has cashed up his shares in the carpet manufacturer.

Horrocks, an adviser with Auckland consulting firm Clendon Feeney, yesterday sold his 258,395 shares, pocketing $155,812.

He had waited for the company to release its full-year results last week before selling, and was now pursuing other commercial interests, he said.

The Business Herald had caught up with him as he was going into a meeting and Horrocks said he did not have time to say more.

Horrocks stepped down from being a director a fortnight ago after eight years on the board, during which time he chaired the company's risk management committee.

He told the Business Herald he left over differences of opinion relating to the $1.2 million severance payments to four senior executives leaving the company in the wake of two profit downgrades within three months.

Chief executive Sam Magill will leave the company at the end of year, for a figure yet to be announced.

A search for his successor is under way.

The troubled company is also making 42 salaried positions redundant as part of the first phase of a wide-ranging review of operations.

The company has blamed its problems on a sudden downturn in the Australian residential carpet market and the strength of the dollar against its Australian and United States counterparts.

Last week it revealed a $13 million unaudited profit for the year to June - slightly better than last month's shock earnings guidance of $11.5 million-$12 million, but still far below last year's prospectus forecasts of $23.9 million.

Audited results are due later this month.

Meanwhile, merger talks with its largest shareholder and rival, Godfrey Hirst, are making slow progress after the board asked Godfrey Hirst for more financial information last week.