BG Group Plc’ share price down, appoints Statoil’s Helge Lund as Chief Executive Officer after 7-month search for a new leader

BG Group Plc, the third-largest oil and gas producer in the U.K., announced that Helge Lund was appointed at the position of Chief Executive Officer. The former CEO of the company, Mr. Chris Finlayson, left BG Group in April 2014, after spending only 16 months as head of the U.K. oil and gas producer.

Chairman Andrew Gould, who took over as interim CEO after Mr. Finlaysons departure in April, said in a statement, cited by the Wall Street Journal: “[Mr. Lund.] has built a world-class exploration and production portfolio at Statoil, and the company is now widely admired for its technical expertise, financial performance and strong, values-based culture.” As reported by Bloomberg, Mr. Gould also added: “Helge is ideally suited to lead BG Group in the next phase of its growth.”

According to the BG Groups statement, the tenure of Mr. Lund, who has been on top of the Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA for a decade, is to start in March 2015. Statoil will be headed by its Marketing Chief, Eldar Saetre, as interim Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Lund took over Statoil after the company has been involved in a bribery probe in Iran in 2004.

The appointment of Statoils ex CEO puts an end to a search for a new head of the company, which lasted for more than half a year. It also comes at a moment when the company has been facing difficulties, resulting into several profit warnings and production declines. These factors combined led to almost 20% drop of the companys share price in 2013.

Analysts at Bernstein Research said in a note today, cited by Bloomberg: “Few will disagree that this is a great appointment from BG. Boasting experience in deepwater, gas markets and clear value over volume focus, he fits the requirements.”

BG Group Plc lost 0.63% to trade at GBX 1 018.5 per share today on the LSE, marking a one year drop of 16.31%. The company is valued at £35.38 billion.