Abbott Labs Appoints CFO on the Heels of New CEO Hire

By Mark Maurer and Dave Sebastian 

Abbott Laboratories appointed a new finance chief who is expected to help guide the company through its U.S. launch of a new version of a glucose monitor for diabetes.

The Abbott Park, Ill.-based maker of health-care products Wednesday said Robert Funck Jr., the company's senior vice president of finance and controller, will become CFO on March 1. Finance Chief Brian Yoor, who has held the CFO role since 2015, will retire on Feb. 29, the company said

The promotion of Mr. Funck, who joined Abbott in 1987 and has served in various executive finance roles since 2005, comes on the heels of the company's appointment of Robert Ford as chief executive.

Mr. Ford, the company's president and operating chief, will succeed Miles White as CEO in March, Abbott said in November. Mr. White, who has been CEO since 1999, will remain executive chairman. Abbott's annual sales grew to $30.6 billion from about $12.5 billion under Mr. White.

Abbott in recent years has made large acquisitions, such as the $23.6 billion purchase of St. Jude Medical, and received Food and Drug Administration approval for new products, such as the MitraClip G4 heart-valve repair device. The company, which is awaiting approval of the glucose monitor FreeStyle Libre 2, reported $8.08 billion in revenue in the third quarter, up 5.5% from the same quarter a year earlier.

With much of the change behind Abbott, the pipeline is somewhat opaque to investors and analysts, said Raj Denhoy, an analyst at Jefferies LLC. Although the company demonstrates strong growth potential, the new CFO will likely need to focus on capital deployment at some point, he said.

"Their ability to sustain themselves is probably the biggest challenge, though not an imminent one," Mr. Denhoy said.

Historically low interest rates will likely prompt analysts to question Mr. Funck on how he plans to help the company manage its balance-sheet flexibility, said Vijay Kumar, an analyst at Evercore ISI.

Write to Mark Maurer at [e-mail] and Dave Sebastian at [e-mail].

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 08, 2020 16:48 ET (21:48 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.