Domain Chief Catalano Quits Two Months After Sydney Listing

(Bloomberg) -- Domain Holdings Australia Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Antony Catalano resigned just two months after the real-estate company’s debut on the stock exchange, saying the demands of the role were too much for his young family. The stock tumbled.

Catalano, who’d led Domain for four years, was spending most of each week away from home and it had become clear he’d have to relocate to Sydney, he said in a statement on Monday. 

Domain shares slumped 12 percent to A$2.92 at 10:14 a.m. in Sydney.

Catalano was the high-profile face of Domain before its spinoff from Fairfax Media Ltd. He’d led the business through an Australian property boom and it was briefly the target of a private-equity takeover tussle last year. But in his statement, the father-of-eight said he was struggling to meet his own commitment to be there for his Melbourne-based family.

“I understand and regret that the timing of this decision is unusually short from Domain’s listing,” he said. “It has become clear to me that doing the job of a listed company CEO the way it needs to be done means that I am not meeting that family commitment.”

Chairman Nick Falloon will act as executive chairman while the company looks for a new CEO.

Shares of Fairfax, which retains a controlling stake in Domain, fell as much as 6 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angus Whitley in Sydney at awhitley1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Vercoe at pvercoe@bloomberg.net.

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