Non-execs split Caledonia chief role

CALEDONIA Investments chairman and chief executive Peter Buckley has wheeled in two City heavyweights as independent non-executive directors in a bid to stave off criticism of the investment vehicle's performance from the Cayzer family and other disgruntled shareholders.

Buckley, who issued a profits warning last month, names the two, who will start immediately, as Charles Allen-Jones, recently retired senior partner of City legal firm Linklaters & Alliance, and Adrian Evans, managing director of investment bank and asset manager Lazard. A third independent is to be appointed when Joe Burnett-Stuart retires next summer.

The main job of Allen-Jones, 62, and Evans, 60, is separate the role of chairman and chief executive in a way that suits Buckley and dissident shareholders such as asset manager Hermes and Sir James Cayzer, a member of the family that owns 34% of Caledonia.

Buckley, 58, is not saying when he will vacate the chief executive's chair he has filled for 14 years, seven of them doubling as chairman.

Caldeonia said that the dividend would be maintained at 7.8p, although pre-tax profits fell nearly 70%to £8.9m in the half-year to 30 September, while net asset value was 6.6% down, by 70p to 985p.