WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Auto breakdown firm AA PLC (AA) Tuesday announced it has fired Chairman Bob Mackenzie from the board with immediate effect due to 'gross misconduct.' Mackenzie will be replaced by John Leach. Following the news, shares of AA plunged about 18% wiping of $200 million from its market valuation.
The firm did not reveal or give any further explanation on the nature of Mackenzie's misconduct. Simon Breakwell has been named as acting chief executive.
Mackenzie had been the AA's executive chairman since June 2014, when he led the AA since overseeing a management buy-in of the company.
he AA said it would release its half-year results at the end of September.
The company said its financial performance in the first six months has been negatively impacted by the effect of erratic work load patterns on an inherently fixed cost base. This was especially true in June and July which saw significant spikes in demand.
AA now expects the full year performance to be broadly in line with that of the last financial year. For 2017m AA made a pretax profit of 100 million pounds on revenue of 933 million pounds.
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