Shire interim CFO jumps ship for Severn Trent

Shire has lost its interim chief financial officer to Severn Trent, increasing the upheaval surrounding the UK-listed drugmaker less than a week after AbbVie moved to scrap its £32bn takeover of the company.

James Bowling will leave Shire at the end of the first quarter of 2015 to succeed Mike McKeon, who is retiring.

The move highlights the disruption facing Shire after the breakdown of its deal with AbbVie, with some executives having looked for new jobs in the expectation of the takeover going through.

AbbVie said last week that it could no longer recommend the acquisition, agreed in July, because a change in US tax rules had "fundamentally changed" the economics of the deal.

Mr Bowling took over the CFO role at Shire on an interim basis in March when Graham Hetherington stepped down.

His departure comes as Shire readapts to life as a independent company, with analysts and bankers predicting that the company will resume its pursuit of acquisitions of its own that were put on hold after the AbbVie deal.

The Financial Times reported in May that Shire was interested in NPS Pharmaceuticals, the US-based developer of a new drug for a condition called short bowel syndrome.

Shire will receive a break fee of $1.6bn from AbbVie under the terms of their agreement - boosting the war chest that Flemming Ornskov, chief executive, has to make acquisitions.

Severn Trent, the UK water supplier, also said on Monday that it would cut three director posts with effect from January, leaving two executive directors and six non-executive directors.

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