Dim showing: LED maker Dialight’s share price falls on CEO exit and weak sales
Shares in Dialight crashed this morning as the LED giant warned of weakening sales and revealed its boss is set to step down.
The London-listed lighting firm led the market fallers as its share price plunged by roughly 30 per cent, having announced an additional £4m of costs following a botched effort to move production to Sanmina in Mexico.
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Shares in the group, which claims to have the largest installed base of industrial LED fixtures in the world, plummeted to roughly 348p this morning, falling from a close of 495p last night.
Ahead of its half-year results next month, the group said today that underlying operating profit is expected to be within the range of £10-£13m, while also warning that a weakening in order intake seen in the second quarter could continue for the remainder of the year.
In its trading update this morning, the troubled firm also said that chief executive Marty Rapp will step down as chief executive after 18 months in the role.
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Rapp, who came out of retirement to lead the firm in January 2018, will leave the board next month, while finance chief Fariyal Khanbabi will take the reigns as interim boss while the firm hunts for a permanent successor.
Dialight, which said that Rapp came in “to lead the company through the difficult transition away from Sanmina, which is largely completed,” said he will remain as an adviser to the group for a period of 6 months to ensure a smooth transition.