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Another day and another long-serving chief executive steps down to smell the roses.
On Friday it was the turn of Incitec Pivot CEO James Fazzino to announce his impending departure after almost eight years in the role.
He will spend the next 12 months transitioning to a new CEO. Chairman Paul Brasher has hired a global search firm to find candidates that can be tested against internal talent.
Fazzino joins a growing number of CEOs giving up the punishing schedules associated with running a public company with operations here and in the United States.
Others to have pulled the rip cord on their exit parachute include Richard Goyder at Wesfarmers, Chris Rex at Ramsay Health Care and Rowen Craigie at Crown Resorts.
Fazzino was not giving interviews on Friday but he did reflect on his term as CEO during his regular morning call with his executive team.
He said he was satisfied that over the past eight years he had met his ambitious program for zero harm for all workers, completed the construction of two new manufacturing plants and successfully integrated the $3.3 billion Dyno Nobel purchase.
Since he took over as CEO from Julian Segal in 2009, Incitec Pivot has been transformed.
At $6.4 billion, the Incitec Pivot market capitalisation is 50 per cent bigger than it was in 2009. At $3.82, the stock is not far off its record high of $4.11 struck in August 2015.
During Fazzino's tenure the company's earnings profile changed from a 70 per cent reliance on earnings from Australia to 50 per cent from Australia and 50 per cent from the United States.
In 2009, the company made half its money from fertilisers and half from explosives. It is now a global industrial chemical company with fertilisers accounting for 25 per cent, explosives 50 per cent and industrial chemicals 25 per cent.
The company's international expansion happened because of Fazzino's long-term strategic view that shale gas would change the competitiveness of the US as a place to do business.
He commissioned a $1 billion ammonia plant in Louisiana. The Waggaman plant is on track for 80 per cent up time in fiscal 2017.
Fazzino explored the option of spending $1 billion on a new plant in Newcastle, NSW but the energy input costs were too prohibitive.
The gas prices being paid by Incitec Pivot in Louisana are less than a quarter of the spot prices being paid in Australia. The company pays about $4 MMBtu in the US whereas the spot price in Australia ranges between $18 MMBtu to $20 MMBtu.
Incitec Pivot has entered into a new gas supply contract with the Northern Territory government for its Mt Isa fertiliser plant and will pay about $8 MMBtu, which is about half the amount of an existing long term contract.
The gas contract at its Moranbah nitrogen plant in Queensland expires in 2025. That contract was written when the Australian gas market was globally competitive.
Fazzino said in a statement to the ASX that it had been a privilege to be CEO of Incitec Pivot.
"During my 14 years with the company, first as CFO and then as CEO, Incitec Pivot has been through a transformational journey which has resulted in the size of the group increasing six fold," he said.
When he was CFO the company had a market capitalisation of about $800 million.
"The company now has a global footprint with privileged assets and is extremely well placed to continue to deliver value to the shareholders," he said.
"I'm very proud of what we have achieved and I wish to thank the board, the executive team and all of our employees for their support and hard work in executing our strategy."
Citi analyst Richard Johnson described Fazzino's tenure as "highly successful" in a note to clients.
"Change often leads to unease but this should be mitigated by the transparent process, confirmation that the trading outlook is intact and that the timing of the change is in many senses logical," Johnson said.