Aegis boss Colin Day in sudden departure
Aegis’ well-regarded chief financial officer Colin Day has suddenly quit and is being replaced by group finance director Jeremy Hicks, who engineered the sale of Abbott Mead Vickers to Omnicom in 1999.
Day’s departure has coincided with a 13 per cent drop in the share price during Tuesday’s trading, wiping &£278m off the market capitalisation of Aegis.
He was the number two executive to Crispin Davis, who was chief executive of Aegis until July last year, when he resigned to take up the same post at Reed Elsevier. Davis was replaced by former News International managing director Douglas Flynn.
One industry insider says: “Day helped make Aegis into the company it is now and he was very well thought of.”
It is not known whether Day has a job to go to, but a statement issued by Aegis says he “resigned to pursue other interests”.
Hicks was the former group finance director of Abbott Mead Vickers, which he joined in 1994. Prior to that he was a director of Hambros bank.
The Aegis Group has recently been rumoured to have held merger talks with Havas Advertising and Zenith.
