Punch-drunk 6C chief fights back

Richard North is the man in the eye of a storm. The Six Continents' finance director will be head of the group's soon-to-be demerged hotels business but the whole company has received a £5.6bn hostile bid before he can really get his hands on it.

And it gets worse. His reputation is being besmirched in an almighty slanging match with the bunch of young bucks led by the former PizzaExpress entrepreneur Hugh Osmond. If he loses the battle he will be out of the job he has worked his whole career for.

"I'm a bit tired," he concedes, moving slowly around his office just off London's Oxford Street. It is an impressive lair, its walls lined with photographs he took on holiday in Zambia.

Also on display is a caricature of the slightly John Majorish-looking Mr North, though he refuses to have his photograph taken next to it. "That's for my own amusement not for that of your readers," he chides.

Elsewhere there are pictures of him with David O'Leary and Robbie Fowler (he used to be on the board of Leeds United, though he previously supported Chelsea) and at Augusta National, home of the US Masters Golf championship. "My best round was 97, my worst was 101," says the 53-year-old 18 handicapper.

We meet at seven in the evening but his day is far from over. "I've got a dinner after this," he says. "Then I've got a meeting with shareholders at 7.30 tomorrow morning. We are doing seven [investor meetings] a day and they are gruelling."

The punishing schedule is hardly surprising. Mr North and his colleagues have only until 12 March to persuade shareholders to back their proposal to demerge Six Continents' hotel division, which includes InterContinental, Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, from its pubs operation, which is home to chains such as All Bar One and Harvester.

He reckons he can rise to the challenge having taken over the running of the hotels subsidiary in October. "I probably worked harder between October and January because, having taken over as chief executive, [of InterContinental Hotels] it was crucial that we got our review in train," he says.

This has involved a slew of management changes, cost cutting measures and "culture change" programmes.

Even so he is putting a brave face on the timing of the bid and the vitriolic criticism from Mr Osmond. "I have to say that five months is a very short period in which to be judged as to whether you can deliver and be a good chief executive. I'd like the opportunity to deliver on the plan."

But all the personal stuff from Mr Osmond accusing Mr North and his colleagues of being "poor operators, poor financiers and poor deal makers". That must hurt, surely?

"I suppose it is in the nature of takeover bids," he says ruefully. "Do I like reading that? No, particularly as I don't think it's fair. We've outperformed the FTSE 100 in terms of total shareholder returns over one, two, three, four and five years. We've outperformed our competitors, we've outperformed Hilton Group. The problem is that we're in the worst bear market since the 1930s. It's easy to have a pop at somebody and say well, your shares have fallen and your earnings have gone down. But in relative terms, we have outperformed."

He is proud of the £4.3bn of assets disposed of since 1997 but admits the group's acquisition record is less impressive. "We are talking about one deal, InterContintental [for which the company is accused of over-paying]. But that was a strategic acquisition and with those kind of deals it can take a while for the returns to come through."

Another problem, however, is that the City has fallen out of love with the Six Continents' management and is questioning whether Mr North is really the man to take the new InterContinental Hotels Group to an independent future. He is a career finance man who spent 20 years at Coopers & Lybrand before joining Burton Group in 1991 and Bass (later renamed Six Continents) in 1994. He is an unknown quantity as a chief executive.

It is something his friends identify as an issue. One says: "This a big test for Richard because he's really always been a finance director. And as soon as he gets the top job someone comes along trying to get him out of it."

Another colleague says: "He's a good FD. One of the best. He'll have to change a bit because he's quite a quiet person and I don't think he finds it easy to engage with people because he's naturally cautious. But Richard is a good egg, there's no doubt about that."

Mr North says he is up to the challenge. "I think what has surprised a lot of people in the organisation is that I love standing up in front of them and winning their hearts and minds, firing them with emotion. It's what leadership is all about. That's not what FDs do, that's what chief executives do. That's what I do."

Warming to his theme Mr North says: "I was the finance director who saved the Burton Group, if you look back. I did the rescue rights issue [in 1991]. I sold Harvey Nichols. I left them in 1994 with no debts." Later he says: "I was named Finance Director of the Year in 2001, It's worth remembering that."

He must have thought a top CEO job would never come. After slaving away for years under Bass lifer Sir Ian Prosser he lost out to Tim Clarke for the group chief executive position when Sir Ian finally split the roles in 2000. "Look, I will tell you that I was disappointed not to be appointed chief executive two years ago," he admits. "I told Tim I would support him but that I would also be looking for other things elsewhere. It's no secret that I was offered other things."

None of them were chief executive positions, however. "That I wasn't offered," he says.

Mr North says he has taken his career one step at a time with the desire to be a chief executive coming relatively late. "You take life five years at a time don't you? When you achieve something, you set a new goal. When I became finance director of the Burton Group I set my goal to be a good finance director. When I got head-hunted here I wanted to be seen as a first-class FTSE 100 FD. When I was made Finance Director of the Year in 2001, I felt, 'well, I've achieved that.'"

Now, the quiet man of this noisiest of bid battles is trying to shake up the hotels operation. He is bringing in proper hotel operators to head the group's four regions, cutting back-office costs and shaping up to sell assets such as the Mayfair InterContinental. As for why he didn't suggest these things as finance director if it is all so obvious now, he replies: "What was required was to crack the culture which as a finance director I couldn't do. But as a CEO I can."

For all Mr North's measured approach to life, he is not averse to a walk on the wild side. Little more than three years ago he was being lined up by Philip Green to be finance director of Marks & Spencer when the retail entrepreneur was planning a £10bn bid for the high street giant. They made an odd couple, the hard-hitting trader on one side and the Marlborough College and Cambridge University educated accountant on the other. But the bid never materialised and they went their separate ways. "Let's be accurate here. I did not sign up," he says. "I listened to a proposal and why wouldn't you if someone suggests you might make a lot of money?"

Now, though, his job is to make Six Continents' shareholders a lot of money, either through a successful demerger or by flushing out a higher bid. Either way, it promises to be bumpy and exhausting ride.