Two days after Timothy D Leuliette was confirmed as Chief Executive Officer and President of Visteon, the company has announced that executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Martin E Welch III, has stepped down.
Michael J Widgren, who has been Vice President, Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer since May 2007, will serve as Chief Financial Officer on an interim basis until a permanent replacement is named.
Commenting on Welch’s departure, Leuliette said: “We appreciate Marty’s contributions during an important period in Visteon’s transformation and wish him the best in his future endeavours.”
Welch’s tenure as Visteon’s Chief Financial Officer lasted just under a year, having been appointed on 17 October 2011, replacing William G Quigley III, who left Visteon on 31 October. Welch was responsible for the company’s financial operations including treasury, tax, audit and investor relations. He was also responsible for the company’s mergers, acquisitions and divestiture activity.
At the end of July, Visteon, which currently holds a 70% ownership stake in Halla Climate Control (HCC), was forced to concede defeat having made a failed cash tender offer for the outstanding publicly held shares of HCC not owned by the company. Visteon’s offer expired without acceptance of the tendered shares, due to a 95% condition not being satisfied. It had been a condition to the offer that Visteon would successfully tender for a minimum of 26.4 million shares to achieve at least 95% ownership of the issued and outstanding shares of HCC.
Under Leuliette’s guidance, the company has subsequently decided to divest its climate control operations to HCC for cash, a move that will result in the creation of Halla-Visteon Climate Group (HVCG) as a single consolidated climate entity. The company, headquartered in South Korea, will be headed by a Korean team. This transaction is scheduled to be completed during the first quarter of 2013.
The supplier also plans to exit the automotive interiors business. Towards this end, it intends to hive off its standalone interiors unit, and its 50% stake in Yangfeng Visteon, its Chinese interiors joint venture.
Don Stebbins, Visteon’s former Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, previously stepped down on 10 August, while Francis M Scricco and David L Treadwell were appointed to the company’s board of directors, increasing the board’s membership from seven to eight.
