By Leo Marchandon
(Reuters) -Dutch lighting maker Signify said on Friday that its Chief Financial Officer Zeljko Kosanovic would become interim CEO while the board finished evaluating candidates to replace Eric Rondolat, who has stepped down as announced in January.
The supervisory board expects to conclude the process of choosing the successor next month, the company said.
Signify reported a decrease of 1.3% in nominal sales in the first quarter to 1.45 billion euros ($1.64 billion), hit by the continued weakness in the professional business in Europe despite a faster-than-expected recovery in China.
However, its net income grew to 67 million euros ($75.96 million) from 44 million a year earlier on lower restructuring costs and financial expenses.
“We are now focused on executing our plan to mitigate the short-term impact of tariffs in Q2, while implementing more structural measures to address the second half of the year”, departing CEO Rondolat said in a statement.
Rondolat expressed confidence in their connected and specialty lighting which now represent two thirds of the business, saying it continued to perform and gain market share.
The company also confirmed its yearly guidance.
($1 = 0.8820 euros)
($1 = 0.8828 euros)
(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk, Editing by Milla Nissi, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Tomasz Janowski)
