Surprise as Cairn Homes chief financial officer to leave

London-listed Irish housebuilder Cairn Homes has said its chief finance officer, Eamonn O'Kennedy, will leave the company in what analysts described as "a surprise move".

Mr O'Kennedy joined Cairn in January 2015 and was instrumental in preparing the company for its £400 million initial public offering later that same year. Prior to Cairn, he had a long career with Independent News & Media, including, including chief financial officer from 2012-2014.

Mr O’Kennedy will remain in the role until Cairn recruits a successor.

"This is a surprise move given that Cairn is still in the early stages of its development activity, and the company will only now commence a recruitment process to find a suitable replacement," Investec economist Ronan Dunphy said in a note.

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Cairn is expected to release 2016 results next month, the first full year of results post-IPO. It returned to profit during the first half of last year as it ramped up housebuilding locally.

The group, which became the first Irish homebuilder to float on the stock market since McInerney Holdings in 1997, recorded a pretax profit before exceptional items of €500,000 in the six months ending June 30th, 2016, compared with a €1.04 million loss for the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose €16 million from €500,000, while gross profit increased to €2.6 million from €51,000.