Shopping mall group Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) said its supervisory board has named Jean-Marie Tritant as its new chief executive to replace Christophe Cuvillier. Unibail said in a statement that Tritant would take the reins of the company from January 1.

The appointment follows a campaign from investors against the company’s strategy. French telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel teamed up last month with URW’s former boss Leon Bressler to oppose the company’s planned 3.5 billion euro ($4.2 billion) rights issue, which shareholders finally rejected on November 10.

Bressler, who was chairman and chief executive of Unibail from 1992 to 2006, was elected last week to chair URW’s board.

Bressler and Niel blamed the 2017 acquisition of Westfield for Unibail’s heavy debt and campaigned for the firm to instead recentre on its best Europe assets.