Alcoa expands IR team ahead of split

New York-headquartered metals manufacturer Alcoa has expanded its investor relations team as it strengthens preparations to split in mid-2016.

Matt Garth, vice president of financial planning and analysis, will add to his remit the lead role in Alcoa’s investor relations group, serving as the primary point of contact for investors and analysts, says the company in a press release.

This will be the Columbia MBA graduate’s third stint in IR at Alcoa. He served in the IR team between November 2002 and April 2005, in what was his first role in the company. He then returned to lead the program in May 2009 before being promoted to CFO of Alcoa’s $3 bn global packaging business in November 2010. Garth took on his current role as head of financial planning and analysis in September last year.

He will be supported by Nahla Azmy, vice president of IR, who has been in the role for just over a year after joining from Rockwood Specialties, and Patricia Figueroa, director of investor relations, who joined the Alcoa IR team in December 2011.

The diverse company – which develops products used in everything from transport to space travel, smart buildings to sustainable food packaging – plans to split into two separate companies in the second half of 2016. ‘The upstream company will comprise five strong business units that today make up global primary products: bauxite, alumina, aluminum, cast products and energy,’ says the company. ‘The innovation and technology-driven value-add company will include the global rolled products, engineered products and solutions, and transportation and construction solutions businesses.’

Alcoa also announced this week that it had added three new board members: Ulrich Schmidt, former executive vice president and CFO of Spirit Aerosystems; John Plant, former chairman of the board, president and CEO of TRW Automotive; and private investor Sean Mahoney.

‘We believe the company is taking the right steps as it moves forward with its separation. This is a pivotal moment for Alcoa and represents an opportunity to create substantial value for shareholders,’ says Dave Miller, senior portfolio manager at Elliott Management, which holds an economic interest in approximately 7.5 percent of Alcoa’s common stock, in a statement.