DAVID PRINCE was eased out of his ??400,000-a-year job as finance director of Cable & Wireless yesterday after serving only 14 months.

The 51-year-old executive, who has spent 20 years with the group, mainly in Hong Kong, plans to retire from the telecoms carrier at the end of the year with an unspecified payoff.

He has a 12-month contract, entitling him to ??400,000. He also holds 593,000 share options and has a defined contribution pension, into which his employer paid ??90,000 last year.

Although Mr Prince had little hand in the events that led to the company??s near-collapse at the end of last year, his departure was widely expected in the City. He was the last link with the discredited former management team headed by Graham Wallace.

Mr Prince had been marginalised by the company??s bosses from the beginning of the year, when Rob Rowley, a non-executive director, was appointed over his head by Richard Lapthorne, the chairman, to run the finance department.

Since then Cable & Wireless??s finances have recovered markedly, largely by settling a ??1.5 billion potential tax liability. Mr Lapthorne yesterday described Mr Prince??s contribution this year as ??invaluable??.

Mr Prince will be replaced by Charles Herlinger, a Briton, who is the deputy chief financial officer at Siemens, the German industrial group. Mr Herlinger will have full control of the finance function when he starts in December.

A spokesman for Siemens said that the departure of Mr Herlinger, 47, was ??good for him and bad for us??. The new finance director will be paid about ??400,000, although final details are yet to be decided.

Mr Prince had been headhunted by Graham Wallace to become finance director in July 2002. He was initially thought of as a possible chief executive but he was criticised last November when he struggled to clarify the company??s massive financial exposure in the United States.