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It has just been announced that Paul Walker– the CEO of Sage from 1994 to 2010 – has been appointed as NED and Chair designate of Halma plc‘the safety, health and environmental technology group’. He replaces Geoff Unwin - the ex-CEO of Hoskyns and Capgemini and current Ch of Xchanging – who steps down after 11 years at the helm. A period when Helma’s market valuation quadrupled to £2b today.
Although Halma is not exactly in our research zone, both Walker and Unwin have been for most of the time we have been analysing the industry.
We could now write a long list of interesting similarities. Of course both Walker and Unwin come from IT and it is still pretty rare to see IT people transfer to lead companies in different sectors. Secondly they are both Geordies!
You may remember (see photo and The Last Time) that last Sept I presented Paul Walker with a special Holway Boring Award for 20+ years of uninterrupted EPS growth at Sage. The only other company in our sector to have achieved that is Capita. Although Halma (I don’t think) would qualify for a Boring Award on the EPS criteria, they are an extraordinary company nonetheless, with 33 years of dividend increases of 5% or more. Just over a year ago there were three trading companies in the FTSE that had more than 30 years dividend increases of 5% or more. But two fell: Tesco, and Cussons, leaving Halma alone.
We wish both Unwin and Walker well.
