Call it the curse of Mothercare. Ed Krell, the chief executive of US group Destination Maternity, has left to "pursue other opportunities", six weeks after he somehow saw an opportunity to bid for the UK baby clobber chain.
The takeover attempt was ridiculous from the off. Destination was, and still is, the smaller company and its shares had been falling in value all year, and thus were never likely to be an acceptable currency for Mothercare's shareholders. Within a week, Destination had injected fresh farce into proceedings by issuing a profit warning caused by competition in the market for "active bottoms with elastic waists". Retreat inevitably followed.
In terms of share price, Krell's overall six-year record looks decent. But the signing-off statement made no mention of the Mothercare fiasco. Destination's board, one assumes, is too embarrassed to talk about it.
