Eramet shares drop as CFO’s suspension deepens management crisis

Shares in Eramet slid on Monday as news that the French mining group’s finance chief had been temporarily suspended deepened a management crisis triggered by the ousting of its former CEO days earlier.

Eramet said in a statement earlier that the sidelining of Abel Martins-Alexandre, pending an investigation into his management methods, was not related to the firing of Paulo Castellari as CEO on February 1.

“This couldn’t come at a worse time,” Oddo BHF analyst Maxime Kogge said. “Eramet is facing the risk of a downgrade by ratings agencies due to its strained financial situation.”

Eramet’s stock fell 6% by mid-afternoon in Paris, making it the biggest loser on the SBF 120 index.

The nickel, manganese and lithium miner had attributed the dismissal of Castellari, who was in the role for only eight months, to differences over “operating methods”, notably coordination with the board and company teams.

Analysts are fretting over the management upheaval after having credited Castellari with early efforts to overhaul the group, which has been hit with weak results and rising debt in the past year due to weak metal markets and investments in battery mineral lithium.

Eramet, which has a market capitalisation of nearly 2 billion euros ($2.38 billion), will report annual results on February 18. Chairwoman Christel Bories is acting as CEO, resuming the role she had passed on to Castellari last year.

The group said that Martins-Alexandre had been temporarily relieved of his duties “to allow for the proper conduct of the independent investigation, which has been initiated following a warning from several employees of the finance department concerning the management of the department.”

The company had initially confirmed the CFO’s suspension late on Friday after the Financial Times had reported the development.

Its largest shareholders are the Duval family with about 37% of capital and the French state with around 27%.

Neither the Duval family nor the French finance ministry immediately responded to requests for comment.

($1 = 0.8398 euros)

(By Gus Trompiz, Dominique Vidalon and Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Inti Landauro and Anil D’Silva)