Patrick Pichette, the chief financial officer responsible for handling Google's increasingly frayed relationship with Wall Street, is to quit when a replacement is found.

In his six-and-a-half-year tenure, the French Canadian presided during a massive build-up in Google’s operations, capped by a surge in capital investment and spending on long-term projects that left many investors wary.

Youssef Squali, an internet analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, said Mr Pichette ran an effective financial operation at Google, but the company had failed to provided enough information to give Wall Street confidence in its growing array of ambitious projects.

Spending on long-range projects like driverless cars and a network of internet access balloons, along with rising capital investment as Google extends its communications networks and data centres, has led to calls from analysts for more detailed information to judge the company.

Google described the pending departure as a retirement and expects to name a replacement within six months. Mr Pichette (52) himself said he was leaving to “spend more time with my family”.

-Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015