AA gets third boss in a year amid ongoing upheaval at motor icon
FORMER car park boss Bob Mackenzie yesterday became the latest in a string of corporate executives to try their hand at running motoring icon AA.
Mackenzie, who will break City convention and combine the role of chairman and chief executive at the group, follows in the footsteps of outgoing boss Chris Jansen, who left yesterday, and Andrew Strong, who departed in November.
Mackenzie’s executive team, which includes ex-Permira dealmaker Martin Clarke and former PwC man Nick Hewitt will now run the group. AA chief financial officer Andy Boland also stepped down yesterday. He will be replaced with another finance chief in the coming weeks.
The reshuffle is the latest chapter in AA’s recent upheaval, which has seen it transformed from a mutually owned corporation chaired by the late shipping magnate Sir Brian Shaw to a debt-laden London-listed behemoth.
Over the 15 years since it was originally sold, its market value has barely risen from its £1.1bn 1999 sale price. Mackenzie’s deal valued the group at £1.4bn.
TIMELINE: CHANGING OWNERS OF THE AA
SEPTEMBER 1999
AA’s 4m members vote to demutualise the group and sell it to British Gas-owner Centrica for £1.1bn, netting each member £248 each. The late chairman of AA, Sir Brian Shaw, joins the Centrica board.
JULY 2004
Centrica, then chaired by Sir Roger Carr and led by Sir Roy Gardner, sell AA to CVC Capital Partners and Permira for £1.75bn. Around £1.3bn of this is debt. Sir Trevor Chinn is appointed AA chairman and Tim Parker is made chief executive.
JUNE 2007
CVC and Permira merge AA with Charterhouse-owned holiday provider Saga to create a new company called Acromas, loading the business up with £4.8bn of debt. The AA is valued at £3.35bn. Saga boss Andrew Goodsell becomes chairman of Acromas, with Andrew Strong taking over as boss of the AA division.
JULY 2013
Five years after the takeover, Acromas moves towards a break up of AA and Saga by restructuring the group’s debt pile. AA takes on most of the group’s near-£4bn of debt through a whole business securitisation.
JANUARY 2014
AA chairman Andrew Goodsell appoints former British Gas Services managing director Chris Jansen as AA chief executive, replacing Andrew Strong who departed in the prior November to take up a senior role at sister company Saga.
JUNE 2014
Former Green Flag boss Bob Mackenzie swoops in with a management buy-in deal backed by Aviva, BlackRock, CRMC, GLG Partners, Henderson Global, Henderson Volantis, Invesco, L&G and Lansdowne Partners. It’s another change of ownership and it values the AA at £1.4bn, excluding debt.