Temenos Appoints New CEO, Says Sales Hit by Short Seller Report

Allegra Catelli, Bloomberg News

A Temenos AG logo on a laptop computer arranged in Budapest, Hungary, on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. Temenos was a target of activist investors even before a report by Hindenburg Research led to the biggest drop in 15 years in the Swiss banking software company’s shares. Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Temenos AG, the financial software company targeted by a short seller report earlier this year, announced its new chief executive officer after repeated activist calls to replace interim CEO Andreas Andreades.

Jean-Pierre Brulard, 65, will take over May 1, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. He spent 14 years at cloud computing company VMWare before its sale to Broadcom Inc. in 2023. Andreades will retire from Temenos after 25 years at the company.

Despite the CEO announcement, lower-than-expected revenue for the first quarter and a guidance cut for the key subscription-as-a-service segment weighed on share performance on Wednesday. The stock was around 6% lower at the open, with JPMorgan analyst Toby Ogg seeing this as a “significant setback.”

Brulard “is a proven leader of large, global, high growth organizations, has extensive operational and strategic planning expertise, and an excellent understanding of our clients’ software-as-a-service transformation requirements, through working with some of the world’s largest banks,” Chairman Thibault de Tersant said in the statement.

Brulard will have to reassure investors after the company’s shares were hit by allegations from short seller Hindenburg Research. Temenos said its software licensing revenue declined 8% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, saying that some customers delayed signing contracts on account of Hindenburg’s claims.

Still, the company confirmed its full-year financial guidance and management said on a call with analysts that it is “confident” the delayed signings will materialize in the next few quarters.

While Temenos has said that an independent examination found the short seller’s allegations “inaccurate and misleading,” the Swiss company’s shares are still trading at about 31% below where they were on Feb. 14, the day before the report came out.

Activist investor Petrus Advisers Ltd., which holds just under 3% of the company, told Temenos it would be willing to discuss legal options against Hindenburg. Petrus has also asked Swiss financial watchdog Finma to initiate proceedings against the short seller.

(Updates with shares reaction, analyst comment)