Royal Mail loses finance director as liberalisation of post looms

Royal Mail's finance director, Marisa Cassoni, is to leave the group at the end of the year - just ahead of full liberalisation of the postal market, the company announced yesterday. The company refused to say why she was leaving after four years with the business or whether she would receive a severance payment.

In a terse statement, Royal Mail said Ms Cassoni had been a key member of the team which had seen through the company's renewal plan and that it would now start looking for a new finance director.

Allan Leighton, Royal Mail's chairman, said that when he was appointed, "Marisa was the only executive who had experience of turnround and she played a valuable part in sorting out both the finance of the Royal Mail and in creating a platform of financial control for us to move forward on." In the last three years, Royal Mail has moved from losses of £318m to a profit from operations of £557m.

One industry source suggested that boardroom tensions could have influenced her departure. "Allan Leighton is a big fan but she and [Royal Mail chief executive] Adam Crozier don't get on," the source said. Though the decision to part company was only announced yesterday, the issue had been under discussion for some time, said the source.

Ms Cassoni, who joined Royal Mail from Britannic Assurance, earned £428,000 in salary and bonuses last year and, according to the company's annual report, received just over £1m under the company's long-term incentive plan.

Her departure comes at a crucial time for Royal Mail. It is in the middle of what has so far proved a bruising pricing round with its regulator, Postcomm. The company is worried that full liberalisation of the postal market, which takes effect on January 1, will see competitors try to cherry-pick its profitable business customers, leaving it with loss-making social mail. It wants to be able to charge higher prices than Postcomm thinks is necessary for stamped mail, arguing that it needs greater flexibility over pricing to compete with rivals in the business sector.

Despite its success in generating profits, Royal Mail's financial needs are considerable. Its pension fund is about £4bn in deficit - which limits its ability to borrow - but it also needs £2bn to automate sorting operations to increase efficiency.

Royal Mail is understood to be lobbying the government to take on some responsibility for what it regards as its historic pension fund liabilities and at the same time is pressing for employees to be given up to 20% of the firm. Alan Johnson, the trade and industry secretary and a former postman who rose to head a postal union, has brought in Professor Sir George Bain to study the issues facing Royal Mail.