Janus Henderson CEO to exit as Peltz’s Trian seeks changes

Dick Weil, center, at the NYSE in 2017.

Chief Executive Dick Weil, who was instrumental in the 2017 merger of Janus Capital and Henderson Group, will retire at the end of March.

Janus Henderson Group said Chief Executive Dick Weil will retire at the end of March as the asset manager comes under increased pressure from Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management to improve performance.

Weil, 58, who was instrumental in the 2017 merger of Janus Capital Group Inc. and Henderson Group to create the global money manager, also will step down as a member of the company’s board in March and remain an adviser through June, the London-based company said Thursday. The board started an internal and external search for a successor.

“We don’t know who an internal candidate might be at this time, and with a CEO search underway, it could be some time before the company will embark on substantive new initiatives,” Keefe Bruyette & Woods analysts Robert Lee and Margo Rybeck wrote in a note to clients after the announcement.

New York-based Trian, which is Janus’s largest shareholder, with a 15.4% stake, said in a regulatory filing this week that it’s engaged in discussions with the company’s board and management. Trian said it’s proposed several strategic and operational changes at Janus, including adding new independent directors, in an effort to improve the firm’s performance.

Janus shares rose 2.4% at 10:59 a.m. in New York. They’ve gained 43% this year.