The CEO of B2B publisher Reed Business Information, Gerard van de Aast, is to step down next month and will relinquish his positions on the boards of both RBI and parent company Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK), throwing even more uncertainty on the former’s planned divestment from the latter. From December 15, RBI’s UK CEO Keith Jones will become acting CEO for the division worldwide “pending resolution of the current divestment process” – whenever that might be.

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Under his watch, Van de Aast has seen the Farmers Weekly publisher become the subject of a protracted and troubled auction since April—a divestment that remains in doubt after reluctance from lending banks to finance the deal. Last month, Reed offered to stump up $330 million (£189 million) to make the deal happen and all the while the overall price of the division has been dropping in a sliding market, from £1.3 billion back in August to nearer £1 billion of late. Last week Reed admitted that, while the sale was at an advanced stage, “a satisfactory outcome cannot be certain”. Release.

The company declared that under van de Aast’s eight years as a senior manager RBI transformed from a print-based publisher to one that makes one third of its profits from online. Whatever his achievements, he still says goodbye to £1.1 million a year in salary and bonuses, according to Forbes.