Temenos Chairman Won’t Give a Timeline for Naming a New CEO

(Bloomberg) — The chairman of Temenos AG said the company isn’t going to give itself a deadline for naming a new chief executive officer as the embattled Swiss fintech fights off shortseller allegations and pressure from investors. 

“The problem with a fixed timeline is that you are forced to take anyone to comply with the timeline,” Chairman Thibault de Tersant said in an interview on Tuesday. Still, the search “shouldn’t take a very long time.”

The company is looking for a permanent replacement for CEO Max Chuard, who was pushed out in January 2023 after more than 20 years at the company following pressure from activist investor Petrus Advisers. Interim CEO Andreas Andreades has held that role since last year, and Petrus on Friday renewed calls for Andreades to also leave the company. 

Temenos, whose shares lost a third of their value after a report by Hindenburg Research last week, got close to hiring a new CEO last year, but that appointment fell through. The company is now dealing with the fallout of claims of financial irregularities and manipulated earnings, which the Swiss company’s management has denied. 

On Monday, Temenos said it would conduct an independent examination of Hindenburg’s claims, overseen by the board. The company is looking to hire two law firms, one in Switzerland and one in the US, as well as an accounting firm.

Read More: Temenos Announces Independent Review of Hindenburg Claims 

“The expectation from our investors, clients and employees is for us to have complete clarity. I don’t believe you can do more than that, it is the best process,” de Tersant said in the Bloomberg interview. “At this stage I have zero indication that any of these allegations are true.”

Speaking at the company’s capital markets day on Tuesday, de Tersant also addressed Hindenburg’s claim that the company had pulled forward contracts to inflate revenue, and said it was a normal practice in the industry because of the way renewal agreements work with banks. 

The initial shortseller report sent shares tumbling by about a third last week, before the stock pared some of the losses on Monday. Shares were falling 5.79% to 62.14 Swiss francs in Zurich and have declined about 19% this year. 

–With assistance from James Cone.

(Updates with details from capital markets day and shares)

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