Johannesburg - Shares in Nampak leapt yesterday as Africa’s biggest packaging firm announced that Andre de Ruyter had been appointed as an executive director and the chief executive designate from January next year.
De Ruyter will take over as chief executive on April 1. He joins Nampak from Sasol, where he is senior group executive for global chemicals and North American operations.
Sasol said yesterday that he would be joining one of its long-standing customers and his resignation would take effect from November 30.
The chemical giant said Fleetwood Grobler, the current managing director of the Sasol olefins and surfactants business, would succeed De Ruyter.
De Ruyter will take over from Andrew Marshall, who joined Nampak as chief executive on March 1, 2009.
Under De Ruyter, Sasol launched its programme in North America to use its technology to convert shale gas into liquid fuel. Its investments are expected to catapult the company into the top 20 biggest global energy companies by market capitalisation in 2018.
Yesterday, Nampak advanced the most in more than three months after naming De Ruyter as new chief executive.
The stock rose as much as 5.5 percent, the biggest intraday gain since June 28, before closing 2.22 percent higher at R31.75 on the day.
“There is now certainty for investors four months after the company said Marshall would leave,” said Brent Madel, an analyst at BPI Capital Africa.
Nampak shares fell the most in three years on May 28, when the firm announced Marshall’s retirement alongside a 20 percent fall in operating profit in South Africa, its biggest market.
The chief executive nomination was an “important decision as the group’s strategy may come under scrutiny”, Madel said.
