Adecco appoints new finance chief

Adecco is pinning its hopes on Jim Fredholm as new CFO Keystone Archive

Troubled employment agency Adecco, which has been damaged by accounting woes, has appointed Jim Fredholm as its new chief financial officer.

Fredholm, currently at Deutsche Post World Net, will join Adecco on June 1.

Adecco, which is eager to try to restore credibility after twice delaying publication of its 2003 results, said on Friday that it was “delighted” at the appointment.

“We believe his strong background in accounting, finance and controls acquired in several large global service companies will be invaluable in helping us to emerge from recent events a stronger company,” commented Adecco chief executive Jérôme Caille in a statement.

Analyst Rolf Kunz at Zurich Cantonal Bank viewed the appointment with mixed feelings.

“The fact that the position of CFO has been filled is positive…(but) Adecco (stock) is paralysed by recent events,” he commented.

Fredholm, aged 51, succeeds Felix Weber, who resigned in January shortly after Adecco unveiled bookkeeping errors at its North American unit, which triggered a plunge in the share price.

The head of the North American unit, Julio Arrieta, also stepped down as a result of the accounting problems.

Sale of “jobpilot”

In a separate development, Adecco also announced on Friday the sale of its European online job unit, “jobpilot”, to Monster Worldwide for a total purchase price of €74.5 million (SFr116.22 million).

Adecco also received a million Monster shares valued at around €23.4 million, and €51.1 million in cash.

The Adecco group, which has its corporate headquarters just outside Zurich, said it would record a book gain of about €20 million in the second quarter of 2004 as a result of the sale.

The company said that the board of directors had decided last year to review strategic alternatives for “jobpilot” after recognising that a jobsite was more suited to an interactive company than to Adecco’s core staffing business.

No new date

Adecco surprised markets on Monday by again delaying the release of its 2003 results.

No new date has been set for their publication or the issuing of its first-quarter 2004 figures.

But Adecco repeated that the bookkeeping problems had had little impact on its numbers.

Analysts believe that the financial impact of the accounting woes will be under €100 million, but some have described the situation as a “masterpiece of communication errors”.

swissinfo with agencies

Key facts

Adecco is the world’s largest employment agency.
It first announced the delay of its 2003 financial figures on January 12.
Adecco has repeatedly cited legal constraints for its tight-lipped communications policy.

In brief

Adecco has appointed a new chief financial officer – 51-year-old Jim Fredholm.

He has spent the last seven years at Deutsche Post World Net.

Fredholm takes up his appointment on June 1.