Nursery World - ABC revamps board after loss

Australian-based childcare giant ABC Learning Centres has restructured its board of directors after announcing a pre-tax annual loss to the end of July of A$437 million (204m).

Among new appointments to the board are Andrew Hawkyard, chief operatingofficer of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, which bought a 60 percent stake in ABC's US operations earlier this year and Colin Au,corporate adviser to Singapore's Temasek Holdings - one of ABC's biggestshareholders. They will join the board in September.

News of the company's losses dragged the share price down 9 per cent to75 cents (35p). It has fallen 86 per cent during a year of turmoil atthe company, which has declared that it plans to sell the UK-based BusyBees chain.

The company said it was 'writing down' A$213 million (100m) in its 2008 accounts and would not be paying a final dividend. Ithas also slashed its budget for acquisitions in Australia and NewZealand, saying it will spend A$165m (77m) to buy 110centres in 2009, with an additional A$45m (21m) forrefurbishments. It is planning 70 acquisitions in 2010 at a cost ofA$80m (37m), with A$17m (8m) forrefurbishments.

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