French miner Eramet suspends finance chief days after CEO ouster, FT reports

French miner Eramet has suspended its Chief Financial Officer Abel Martins-Alexandre just days after firing its chief executive citing disagreements on “operating methods”, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Chair Christel Bories, who is now serving as interim CEO, also told staff in a note she would appoint an independent firm to investigate the functioning and management of the finance department, the FT reported.

Bories said on Sunday that CEO Paulo Castellari’s dismissal was due to coordination issues with the board and staff, rather than the company’s poor financial results.

Eramet did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment outside regular business hours. Abel Martins-Alexandre and Christel Bories did not immediately respond when reached for comment via email and LinkedIn.

Martins-Alexandre, who joined the company in September and was considered close to the ousted CEO, had been on sick leave after Castellari’s exit, the newspaper added.

Shares of the company are down nearly 8% this week.

The CEO’s ouster just months into his term raised questions over governance at the nickel, manganese and lithium miner, which is partly owned by the French state.

However, sources told the FT that neither Castellari’s dismissal nor Martins-Alexandre’s suspension is related to any allegations of wrongdoing.

The report said Castellari and Martins‑Alexandre had in recent weeks been setting up an internal task force to look into potential financial mismanagement within the group in recent years.

Eramet has cited weakness in metal prices and production setbacks at some of its mines for poor results in the past year.

(Reporting by Abu Sultan in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)