Chris Kennedy, the chief financial officer (CFO) of Micro Focus International PLC (LON:MCRO), is to jump ship to join ITV.
Kennedy obviously gets around a bit because he was CFO of easyJet for five years until 2015, working under Carolyn McCall, who is now the boss of ITV.
READ: ITV boss Carolyn McCall poaches former easyJet colleague as CFO
Kennedy will leave Micro Focus in the first quarter of next year. He will be replaced by Brian McArthur-Muscroft, who has held a variety of senior management positions, including the role of CFO at TeleCity Group PLC and most recently as CFO of Paysafe Group PLC.
The legacy software group said trading had continued in line with the board’s expectations, with the trajectory of the top-line showing an improvement in the second half of the fiscal year (to October 31).
As a result, constant currency revenue will be around the better end of the guidance range, which was for a fall of 6-9% on last year’s revenue.
Trading has also been consistent with the group's adjusted underlying earnings margin guidance of roughly 37% at the midpoint of the revenue range.
Taking into account the US$171mln spent on share buybacks in the period, net debt is expected to be in line with guidance.
Talking of the share repurchase programme, Micro Focus said it intends to recommence this, with up to US$400mln of shares – including the US$171mln already spent – earmarked for buy-back.
Shares in Micro Focus were up 2.2% at 1,258p.