On Jul. 24, a day before publishing its financial results for the first half of 2019, Swiss specialty chemicals producer Clariant shocked the markets by announcing the resignation of its CEO of less than a year, Ernesto Occhiello.

Former CEO Harriolf Kottmann, who moved over to head the supervisory board last year, has now reassumed leadership of the executive committee (managing board) until a successor to Occhiello has been named.  A Clariant spokesman told the news agency Reuters that the search has only just begun and will likely be both internal and external.

The Italian national, who had previously headed SABIC’s specialty chemicals business, took the Swiss job in September 2018, about nine months after Saudi Arabian chemicals giant SABIC announced it had acquired a stake of nearly 25% in Clariant.

Simultaneously the two chemical groups announced plans to create a new High Performance Materials business unit that would absorb parts of Clariant's Plastics & Coatings business.

At the time, Clariant was reeling from a bruising fight with activist investor White Tale and a failed attempt to merge with US rival Huntsman, a deal that had been pushed by Kottmann and opposed by White Tale.

Clariant’s tight-lipped comments yesterday – management was not available to journalists – namely that the CEO had resigned for personal reasons and that the negotiations with SABIC were still on track gave rise to market speculation. On the back of it, the chemical producer’s share lost nearly 4%.

The Swiss group is already short-staffed as regards top management. Christian Kohlpaintner, who was a member of the executive committee, resigned without explanation at the end of June. Clariant said then that his responsibilities would be distributed among other committee members.

Remarking that the news creates insecurity for the Clariant share, Baader Helvea analyst Markus Mayer, in a note to clients, raised several theories for the resignation of the new CEO, who he said “had a good reputation in the chemical industry and started several important transformation steps at Clariant.”

Mayer’s theories include a falling out between Occhiello and Kottmann or, alternatively, that Aramco-controlled SABIC may have altered its strategy. Instead of the joint venture, of which few details have been released, the Saudi group could be weighing an outright takeover of Clariant, the analyst said. This option would have left Occhiello conflicted between his old and new employer.

Clariant has promised to provide more details on the SABIC connection when presenting results at 3 p.m. today.