SMG share price plummets following Jackson exit

SMG's float of Virgin Radio has been set back by the resignation of Virgin Radio chief executive Paul Jackson on Friday last week - a departure which has contributed to the company's share price plummeting by almost 20% to 37.7p a share. [ALL]

SMG's float of Virgin Radio has been set back by the sudden resignation of Virgin Radio chief executive Paul Jackson on Friday last week - a departure which has contributed to the company's share price plummeting by almost 20% to 37.7p a share.

The drop in share price yesterday happened after Reuters reported that Goldman Sachs was selling £13.2m worth of shares on behalf of an institutional investor.

City analysts have labelled Jackson's departure as 'embarrassing' and 'badly timed' for SMG, which was already facing the possibility of delaying Virgin Radio's proposed flotation because of tough market conditions.

In an interview with Broadcast, Virgin Radio chairman Richard Huntingford who had been in the job less than two weeks when Jackson quit said the group will continue preparing for an initial public offering.

'We will continue preparing for initial public offering (IPO) but we can't press the button until we have a new chief executive in place. Flotation in the autumn would be optimistic we also need to consider external factors like market conditions.

Jackson will be joining his former boss Fru Hazlitt at GCap Media where he has been appointed managing director of Capital 95.8. He will report to Hazlitt managing director of the Group's London stations.