Alison Cooper is to stand down down as chief executive of tobacco giant Imperial Brands after nine years, further reducing the already limited number of female bosses of FTSE 100 companies.
Cooper, who has worked at the maker of cigarette brands including Gauloise, Davidoff and John Player Special for two decades, will step down once a successor is appointed.
The number of female chief executives running FTSE 100 firms is set to rise to six next month when Alison Rose officially starts as the Royal Bank of Scotland boss, the first woman to lead a major British bank. Last week, Véronique Laury officially left struggling Kingfisher, the owner of the B&Q and Screwfix chains.
Cooper, who has so far been paid about £30m during her tenure as chief executive, provided no comment on her unexpected announcement.
“Alison has worked tirelessly and with great energy and passion during her 20 years with Imperial, nine of which have been as CEO, and the board would like to thank her for the tremendous contribution she has made,” said Mark Williamson, chairman of Imperial Brands.
“During her tenure as CEO the business has been significantly simplified and reshaped to strengthen its long-term growth potential, and more than £10bn in dividends has been returned to shareholders. I am pleased that Alison has committed to continue to lead the business until a successor is appointed, ensuring an orderly transition of responsibilities.”
The announcement of Cooper’s departure comes days after the company issued a profit warning after suffering from the growing backlash against vaping in the US.
The company’s share price has fallen by almost a third in the last year, and more than halved since 2016. Imperial Brands’ market value has fallen from more than £38bn to less than £18bn over that time.
Last week, Imperial Brands warned that the market for “next-generation products” such as its Blu vaping brand had got tougher in the US as government agencies and states had clamped down on vaping. US health officials have identified at least 530 confirmed and probable cases of severe lung-related illnesses and seven deaths linked to vaping.
California on Wednesday urged citizens not to vape while investigations into the effects of the products continued. California’s move followed Donald Trump’s proposed ban on flavoured e-cigarettes, which are popular with teenage users, and a four-month block on sales of tobacco and marijuana vaping products by Massachusetts.
“The timing of the move is curious, given that the company as well as the sector is facing some serious headwinds as we move into the end of the year and look to 2020,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
“With a slowdown on normal cigarette sales already cutting into profits, e-cigarettes were supposed to be the next key growth area. This strategy now appears to be under threat.”
Imperial Brands is also set to lose its non-executive chairman, Williamson, who is standing down once a replacement can be found after he exceeded the Financial Reporting Council’s revised corporate code on tenure that came into force in January.
Cooper is the third high-profile executive to announce their departure this week, following the shock news on Wednesday that Dave Lewis is quitting as CEO of Tesco, and Martin Gilbert’s retirement from Standard Life Aberdeen.
The vaping backlash has also been in part responsible for scuppering talks of a potential merger of the world’s two largest tobacco companies, Philip Morris and Altria, which emerged in August.
Altria, which has a 35% stake in e-cigarette brand Juul, spun-off Philip Morris International in 2008. Philip Morris, the owner of brands including Marlboro and L&M, ended the talks of a reunion last month after reportedly concluding that the regulatory scrutiny on Juul meant it was not the time for a deal.
