EIDOS ANNOUNCES NEW FINANCE DIRECTOR
Copyright 2001 The Daily Telegraph

[ June 8th 2001 ]

EIDOS, the computer games company best-known for creating cyber-babe Lara Croft, appointed a finance director yesterday after a six-month search. Stuart Cruickshank, finance director of the Woolworths chain, joins on September 3, replacing Jeremy Lewis who left last October. Eidos shares rose 2 to 283p on the news. The troubled Tomb Raider publisher launched a deeply discounted rights issue with its results last week, to raise £51.7m, and it is hoped that the appointment of a finance director will increase investor confidence in the stock.

"The rights issue is underwritten," a spokesman for Eidos said yesterday. He added: "Stuart has a broad-based retail and consumer experience and strong business skills as well. He is exactly what we need to strengthen our management. "People are anticipating growth in this industry as the new generation of consoles come on line, Stuart will also help to control the cost-base of the business while it is in transition and help us to improve our financial controls." The company, which announced a £96.4m loss for the last year, compared with a £49.3m pre-tax profit the previous year, has been badly hit by Sony's delayed roll-out of PlayStation 2 and falling demand for its existing games.

Thanks to the Daily Telegraph.