Nestle Ousts CEO After Romance Probe - Stock Falls 1.9% Premarket, Down ~30% Over 5 Years

Big churn at Nestle (SIX: NESN) has landed the company back in the headlines. Laurent Freixe, who spent nearly four decades at the food giant, was removed after an internal probe found a romantic relationship with a direct subordinate that breached company rules. The market reaction was immediate: premarket indications out of Zurich showed the stock trading about 1.9% lower.

This is the second CEO exit inside roughly a year. The prior chief executive left under pressure last year, the corporate chair signalled a phased departure next year, and now an abrupt sacking with no exit package for a long-serving executive. That sequence has stripped away an old selling point for Nestle - multi-year leadership continuity - and left investors with a tougher governance story to price.

Philipp Navratil has been handed the reins. He's an internal pick, known within the company for his work on brands like Nescafe and KitKat. Promotion from inside keeps institutional memory but also raises questions about whether the board conducted a full external search this time, and how tightly the new CEO will be tied to the outgoing turnaround blueprint.

There's more than drama here. Nestle's operational metrics have lagged lately: sales volumes have been a sore spot since the pandemic, and a review of the vitamins unit was launched after first-half volumes missed expectations. The share picture has been ugly - about a one-third slide over five years, and roughly a 17% decline while Freixe was in charge. For a stock once regarded as a rock on the Swiss exchange, that's a reputational hit.

Market commentary has focused on three knock-on effects. First, headline risk and governance scrutiny are likely to keep volatility elevated. Second, the internal succession raises questions about strategic clarity until Navratil lays out his approach. Third, an underperforming segment review - the vitamins business - means the equity story won't get a clean bill of health until there's visible progress on volumes and margins.

Expect the next few company announcements to matter more than usual: board commentary, any signalling on the scope of change in the turnaround plan, and updates on the vitamins review will all be parsed closely. For now, the arithmetic is simple and stark - a beloved, long-standing Swiss corporate name has seen two CEOs in about a year, and the shares are reflecting that instability.

Premarket move: ~-1.9%. Five-year decline: ~-30%. End of story - for now.