Jardine Matheson Holdings taipan Percy Weatherall is to step down in March next year and be replaced by Anthony Nightingale, a long-time employee of the Keswick family-controlled group, according to a company statement filed with the London Stock Exchange yesterday.
Mr Nightingale's elevation to managing director could signal that Jardines intends to further shift its focus away from Hong Kong towards Southeast Asian operations since, under his direction, regional businesses have come to account for 40 per cent of group profit, up from less than 10 per cent in 1999.
Mr Weatherall - part of the controlling clan - took over the firm at a period of unprecedented stress in 2000, with American institutional investors demanding that the group's protective cross-shareholding be unwound and the Keswicks kicked out.
Under Mr Weatherall's low-profile yet prudent stewardship, the group has continued a business-downsizing and avoided the kind of business disasters that befell it in the 1990s, resulting in Jardines' share price exploding upwards over the period.
'In recent years, Anthony Nightingale has been instrumental in building our Southeast Asian interest,' Jardines chairman Henry Keswick said in the statement. 'He will bring significant experience to the role.'
Mr Nightingale could not be reached for comment yesterday.