Barron’s Explains The Importance Of Erik Fyrwarld For Nalco (NLC)

Barron’s Nail A. Martin describes the arrival of Nalco’s (NYSE: NLC) current CEO Erik Fyrwarld as a key event for this water-treatment company. At the moment of his arrival the company was facing recession and had a heavy debt burden. His first task was to set a three year growth strategy with a goal to reduce costs , trim debt and reallocate capital and personnel to higher-growth areas. He successfully refinanced $1.25 billion of debt and continued to strive towards higher productivity focusing on emerging markets like Russia, China and India.

Recession has hit Nalco (NLC) pretty hard slashing its revenue 13.8% to $1.8 billion in the first half of 2009, but many people see some reasons for optimism. Jay Aston a portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman says that Erik has brought a sense of energy and excitement to Nalco (NLC) and he has been very good at elaborating where the opportunities are.

Nalco (NLC) gained 1.85% on Friday extending its winning streak to five in a row. It closed at $18.44 and had a volume of $608K.