Two of Britain’s biggest
fashion retailers are poised to
appoint new chief executives,
as Asos lines up José Antonio
Ramos Calamonte and New
Look boss Nigel Oddy
prepares to stand down.
Ramos Calamonte, 50,
currently Asos’s chief
commercial officer, is the
frontrunner to replace
former boss Nick Beighton.
The search was delayed byAsos’s pursuit of Rob Hattrell,
head of eBay’s European arm,
who turned down the job.
Ramos Calamonte joined
Asos 17 months ago from
Portuguese retailer Salsa
Jeans, where he was chief
executive. Before that, he
headed commercial strategy
for brands including Zara
owner Inditex. At Asos, he
has been responsible for its
own-brand product range
and has reorganised its
commercial functions.Since Beighton left Asos
amid boardroom
disagreements last October,
its profits have been wiped
out by chaos in supply chains
and a sharp slowdown in
sales. In the six months to
February 28, sales grew 1 per
cent to £2 billion and the
online retailer swung to a
£15.8 million pre-tax loss.
Shares in Asos have dropped
by a third to £15.46 this year.
Asos is expected to
announce the appointment ofa new chief executive in the
coming weeks. A source close
to the process, run by
headhunters at Russell
Reynolds, said that although
Ramos Calamonte was one
candidate on a “very short”
shortlist, a final decision has
not been made. Asos declined
to comment.
Meanwhile, Oddy has held
talks with the board of New
Look over his departure,
which will probably be
formalised in the comingweeks. The high street
fashion retailer, which trades
from about 400 shops, is
understood to have identified
its preferred successor.
Oddy joined New Look as
chief operating officer in 2019
after stints running House of
Fraser and discount chain
The Range. After being
promoted to chief executive
in December that year, Oddy
slashed New Look’s rents
through an insolvency
procedure known as aSam ChambersThe founder of Grubhub teamed up with
US private equity giant General Atlantic
in an audacious attempt to buy back the
company he sold to Just Eat Takeaway for
$7.3 billion last year, it can be revealed.
Matt Maloney, who co-founded the
takeaway firm in Chicago in 2004, is
understood to have been working with
the TikTok-investor earlier this year on
taking back control of Grubhub. Sources
said they had ultimately decided against
making a bid. However, Just Eat Takea-
way shares have plunged since then, rais-
ing the prospect of a return.
Just Eat Takeaway, formed in 2020
through the merger of the UK’s Just EatMatt Maloney is
understood to
have worked on
plans to buy back
Grubhub after
selling it for
$7.3bn last yearand Dutch rival Takeaway.com, com-
pleted the all-share deal to buy Grubhub
in June last year. But after pressure from
investors to offload it and simplify the
company — and after receiving unsolic-
ited takeover approaches — Just Eat Tak-
eaway said in April it was “actively
exploring the introduction of a strategic
partner and/or a partial or full sale of
Grubhub”.
It is not known whether these take-
over suitors included General Atlantic.
Maloney could not be reached for com-
ment.
Grubhub, an early leader in online
delivery, was particularly popular in New
York, but it lost share to rivals Uber Eats
and DoorDash and is now in third place.New look at the head of British fashion outfits
company voluntary
arrangement (CVA) and
agreed a debt-for-equity swap
with its lenders. Sources close
to the retailer say trading has
recovered well coming out of
the pandemic.
It is understood that Oddy,
62, is planning to take a break
but does not yet intend to
retire. Separately, New Look
is close to appointing advisers
to handle the refinancing of a
£101 million term loan
expiring in June 2024.Activist sharpens
the axe at Unilever
Nelson Peltz, the billionaire
investor who was last week
given a board seat at Unilever,
has hinted at job cuts after
outlining his investment
firm’s approach to a slimmer
“corporate” head office.
Peltz, 79, has taken a
1.5 per cent stake in Unilever
through his firm Trian,
months after the household
goods giant faced a backlash
from shareholders over its
aborted £50 billion approach
for Glaxo Smith Kline’s
consumer healthcare arm.
While he has so far stayed
quiet on his plans for the
FTSE 100 company, Peltz said
of Trian: “We believe that just
about everybody should be
part of somebody’s P&L
[profit and loss]. Huge
amounts of people in
corporate is an L.”
Peltz has a reputation for
agitating for change at some
of the world’s largest
companies. He demanded
that Cadbury sell off its drinks
division after taking a stake in
2006, and was awarded a seat
at Procter & Gamble after a
lengthy proxy battle.
His appointment to the
board of Unilever as a non-
executive director andmember of its compensation
committee sparked an 8 per
cent jump in the share price.
Bert Flossbach, a top-ten
investor in Unilever, said he
shared the “approach Nelson
Peltz has brought forward at
other companies”.
Unilever has already
committed to cutting costs
and said in January it would
axe 1,500 jobs worldwide in a
management shake-up. The
job losses are part of a
restructuring to divide
Unilever into five businesses
— beauty and wellbeing,
personal care, home care,
nutrition and ice cream — in
an attempt to accelerate
growth. Each unit of the
company, which employs
149,000 people, would be
responsible for its own
strategy, growth and profit.
The appointment of Peltz
will pile further pressure on
Unilever chief executive Alan
Jope, 58, and chairman Nils
Andersen, 63. “We try to get
close to the CEOs, and we
believe they come to
understand that we are there
to help them,” said Peltz.
“Once CEOs realise that, they
understand they’ve got a real
ally in the boardroom.”Nelson’s armada, page 5Sabah MeddingsTycoon in
bid plan for
Just Eat arm
Jitse Groen, Just Eat Takeaway’s chief
executive, said he had appointed advis-
ers in April to run a formal sales process
for Grubhub. Last week, The Sunday
Times revealed that it was being offered
to potential bidders at a fraction of the
sum it was bought for less than a year ago
— and it may not find a buyer at all.
Maloney, 45, joined the management
board of Just Eat Takeaway last June, but
his departure was announced only four
months later. The company said he was
leaving to “pursue other opportunities”.
General Atlantic was founded in 1980
and has more than $78 billion (£62 bil-
lion) in assets under management. It has
owned stakes in Uber and ByteDance, the
owner of TikTok. UK investments include
Immunocore, the cancer therapy firm
established in Oxford and listed in the US.
Grubhub pioneered a model of collect-
ing menus and information from restau-
rants and making them available through
its website and app.
It generates revenue by taking a slice of
the price of each order, while restaurants
are responsible for providing their own
delivery drivers. But with the rise of Uber
Eats and DoorDash, which have their
own drivers, Grubhub had to do more to
compete.
Since it completed the Grubhub deal,
shares in Just Eat Takeaway have fallen
more than 73 per cent, giving it a $3.8 bil-
lion valuation. Investor appetite for tech
stocks has dampened, while private food
delivery start-ups such as Gorillas and
Getir have announced job cuts.
Just Eat Takeaway has now hired advis-
ers from Bank of America to find a buyer
or strategic partner for Grubhub. How-
ever, sources said expectations for the
sale had been cut to as little as £1 billion
after it failed to attract any serious inter-
est from strategic buyers.
General Atlantic declined to comment.Sabah MeddingsReject £1.2bn bid, says
FirstGroup investor
The biggest shareholder in
bus and trains giant
FirstGroup has urged it to
reject the recent £1.2 billion
takeover approach from a US
private equity firm.
Schroders owns a near-
18 per cent stake in
FirstGroup, which operates
Avanti West Coast, Great
Western Railway and South
Western Railway. In an
unusual public statement for
a blue-chip fund manager, it
criticised the offer from I
Squared Capital as being
“unattractive” and failing to
reflect the scarcity value of
one of the few big UK bus and
train groups.
I Squared’s bid, valuing the
company at up to 163.6p a
share, includes 45.6p that is
conditional on the amount
FirstGroup eventually
receives from the previously
agreed sale of its US
businesses, including the
famous Greyhound bus line.
Andy Simpson, Schroders’
UK equity fund manager,
said: “As the largestJim Armitage shareholder in FirstGroup,
we consider the level and
structure of the bid approach... unattractive.
“The proposal is highly
conditional and leaves
shareholders exposed to
downside risks at a time
when we believe the stand-
alone company has attractive
growth prospects, a strong
balance sheet and a
depressed valuation.”
He added: “We firmly
believe that any offer needs to
fairly reflect the attractive
characteristics and scarcity
value of the underlying
assets.”
Shares in FirstGroup are
trading at 137p, well below
the upper level of I Squared’s
bid — suggesting investors do
not believe it will go through
at that top price.
Other shareholders
include Threadneedle, which
has a 15 per cent stake, and
Aberforth Partners, with
about 9 per cent.
First Group’s board is still
considering the offer. The
company has financial results
due on June 14.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have taken Russian oilBUSINESS
&MONEY
June 5, 2022 · thesundaytimes.co.uk/business thesundaytimes.co.uk/money
BANKING THE NARCOS
PAGE 7
ARE YOU SAVING
ENOUGH FOR
RETIREMENT?
MONEY,
PAGE 11
SIDELINING
SANDBERG
PAGES 2-3
Russia’s closest allies have
doubled their imports of its oil
since the war in Ukraine,
writes Laith Al-Khalaf.
Western nations have
slashed their imports over
concerns that oil sales were
funding Vladimir Putin’s
invasion. In March, business
secretary Kwasi Kwarteng
said Britain would phase out
oil imports from Russia by the
end of the year.
However, data compiled for
The Sunday Times reveals theslack has been more than
taken up by China, India and
the UAE — countries with ties
to Moscow.
In May, China brought in 43
shipments of Russian oil, up
from 36 in January — the last
month before Russia invaded
Ukraine. India had 28, up from
just two in January, data from
shipping analyst Signal
shows.
The UAE saw ten ships with
Russian oil arrive on its shores
last month, up from just two inJanuary. Since the invasion of
Ukraine, the oil-rich kingdom
has become a hotspot for
small oil merchants that have
filled the gap created by
boycotts from western trading
houses. Together, the three
countries have doubled their
intake of Russian oil
shipments.
Last week, the European
Union agreed to sanctions
banning 90 per cent of
Russian oil imports by the end
of the year.RUSSIA’S ALLIES
SOAK UP OIL
SURPLUS
ILLUSTRATION: PETE BAKER