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Things
Sky TV CEO Martin Stewart had been in office for just 21 months.
Former Sky Television CEO Martin Stewart says he decided to resign last week and has not yet thought about what he plans to do upon his return to Europe.
The pay-TV firm announced Stewart’s resignation after just 21 months at the NZX role on Tuesday morning.
Sky’s Chief Commercial Officer Sophie Moloney was appointed CEO “effective immediately.”
The British-born Stewart said the likelihood that Covid’s border restrictions would continue had contributed to his decision to return to Europe.
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Talking to Things Upon his departure, Stewart said that New Zealand was a wonderful place to live.
“But at the end of the day, it’s a long way from pretty much anywhere and that kind of thing plays on your mind and that’s really all there is to it.”
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Sophie Moloney has been named CEO with “immediate effect.”
He had “not thought for a moment” whether he would stay in the pay-TV business in Europe, he said.
“The way I operate is that I give ‘110 percent’ to everything I’m doing, and when I think that’s where I finished, then I start thinking about what’s next.”
It’s rare for publicly traded companies like Sky to appoint a permanent CEO without some sort of executive search.
But Stewart said it didn’t make sense in this case.
His long-term hope had always been for Moloney to take over as CEO, he said.
“You can go and find whoever you want, you will come back to the same answer.”
Shares of Sky fell 5 percent to 16 cents during lunchtime trading on the NZX in the wake of the announcement.
Stewart bought more shares in the market last month.
“I can keep buying stocks because I think the company is very undervalued,” he said.
“Don’t expect to see me suddenly sell off all my shares, I think, because that’s not going to happen.”
Tom Pullar-Strecker / Stuff
Sky’s legal team is confident that it can still obtain the sale and outsourcing of its external broadcast business through the line, despite competition concerns from the Commerce Commission.
Sky Chairman Philip Bowman said the board respected Stewart’s decision to leave and was “pleased that we were able to mutually agree that he would.”
“Since joining Sky in February 2019, Martin has led a successful change and the board recognizes his important contribution,” he said.
Stewart replaced Sky’s former CEO John Fellet at a time when Sky was still reeling from the Commerce Commission’s refusal to approve its takeover proposal by Britain’s Vodafone.
The company’s share price continued to fall after his appointment, but he has taken several steps to chart a different course for the company.
These include announcing a move for Sky into the broadband market while at the same time forging a nascent partnership with Spark, its streaming sports rival, and considering giving Sky Satellite customers more flexibility in their channel options.
His business achievements included overseeing a crucial capital raise of $ 157 million in May.
Sky delivered good news to its struggling shareholders last month, increasing its earnings and income guidance for the year through June after a “positive start” to its new financial year.
But it suffered a setback on Monday when the Trade Commission raised significant competition concerns with Sky’s plan to sell and outsource its OSB external transmission business to US company NEP New Zealand.
Moloney is Sky’s first CEO.
The nature of the “continuous disclosure” obligations made decisions such as the transition of Sky’s chief executive officer seem more abrupt than they were, he said.
“I have worked for companies called Sky for most of my career. I have pay TV and the media in my blood.
“I’ve been working very closely with the board alongside Martin, indeed, as his ‘2IC,’ for a decent amount of time that I appreciate that the outside world doesn’t necessarily see.”
Moloney said he really wanted Sky to be recognized as a “New Zealand company.”
“I think there is a lot more we could do with all of our partners in terms of the broader Sky community in Aoteroa.”
She held out hope that Sky could pull off the OSB sale through the line and said Sky’s legal team did not see a “problem statement” released by the Commerce Commission as a rejection.
“We are confident that we will get to the right place.
“It is a very important deal for us in terms of taking care of our people, and working closely with NEP is definitely the right path for us,” he said.
