Carillion begins search for new chairman

Construction company Carillion has today (Thursday) begun the search for a new chairman after its earlier announcement that Sir Neville Simms was leaving.

No timescale has been given to find a successor and the group would only say it expected to replace Sir Neville, 59, by "next year's annual meeting".

Sir Neville will only step down as chairman and as a director of the group once his replacement and the new yet to be appointed non-executive directors have settled in.

Sir Neville told shareholders yesterday (Wednesday) that trading conditions continued to be positive and that the group won new orders worth more than £850m in the first four months of the year - increasing its order book to £5.2bn.

He added: "Carillion remains firmly on track to deliver healthy earnings growth in 2004."