Stockland starts search for new boss

25 Jul 2012, 4:54 pm   -   Source: AAP

The long-serving managing director of Stockland has quit just three months after saying he would stay for another three years.

Stockland Group is on the hunt for a new boss after Matthew Quinn announced he was stepping down after 11 years at the global property developer's helm.

Just three months after telling Stockland's board he was staying for another three years, Mr Quinn on Wednesday revealed he'd changed his mind.

News of his departure, which is expected to occur before February, coincided with Stockland issuing its third earnings downgrade in four months.

Stockland now expects to report earnings per security of 29.3 cents for fiscal 2012, slightly below the 29.8 cents it flagged in May.

Stockland has begun searching within its own ranks as well across Australia and overseas for a new managing director.

Chairman Graham Bradley said the search was the board's top priority, noting that external advisers had been keeping tabs on potential candidates for some time.

"We will be looking broadly across not just the property sector and looking locally and internationally for the best possible person," Mr Bradley said.

"We've only had three managing directors in our 60 years as a company.

"Matthew is our third and he has led the company with incredible passion and commitment."

Media speculation on Tuesday had suggested Mr Quinn would step down at Stockland's annual meeting later this year, with potential successors including Investor Property Group's former boss Chris O'Donnell and Lend Lease executive Denis Hickey.

The long-serving boss of Australia's biggest residential developer said he'd made up his mind to leave after a family holiday in June to celebrate his 50th birthday.

Mr Quinn said while he would prefer to leave when property markets were in better shape, it was time for a change.

"It's no reflection at all of the performance of the company nor our strategy," he said.

"I've always been a great believer that you do what you enjoy and you give 100 per cent, and if I can't give 100 per cent to the job that I'm doing I owe it to the company to step down and that's the position I've come to."

Looking back on his 13-year career at Stockland, Mr Quinn said he was proud to have secured some of the largest residential projects in the county and to have steered the company through the global financial crisis.

Among his regrets were having to launch a capital raising in 2009 and sell assets in a difficult market.

He said the housing cycle was the worst he had seen in his career, with the downbeat consumer sentiment expected to weigh on the market for some time.

On Stockland's revised earnings guidance, he said it was linked to Stockland's restructuring costs and the fact it had not bought back as many shares as planned in its share buyback.

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