Matthew Roberts has been appointed CE of JSE-listed Intu Properties, with effect from April 29.
Roberts will succeed David Fischel, who will be standing down from the board and leaving the company on April 26.
Roberts was appointed by the board following a “rigorous search process”, which included a number of first-class internal and external candidates, the company noted.
Intu believes Roberts, who has been CFO since 2010, has “excellent real estate and retail experience, as well as detailed knowledge of Intu’s affairs”.
The company adds that Roberts is “well placed to drive Intu’s winning destinations strategy, which includes adapting [quickly] to the changing retail environment, delivering strong underlying individual centre performance and making smart use of capital, including plans to reduce the company’s debt to asset ratio to below 50% through disposals, part-disposals and introducing partners to assets”.
A formal process to recruit a new CFO will start imminently and will include external and internal candidates.
In the interim, the position will be filled on a temporary basis from Intu’s finance team under Roberts’ supervision.