PATRICE Motsepe has relinquished executive duties on the board of African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), the R46bn diversified mining group he helped found in 2002.
Citing compliance with new JSE regulations for his decision to step down as executive chairman, Motsepe said on Monday he would continue as a director of the company and occupy the non-executive chairmanship.
The listing requirements require that the chair of ARM must not be an executive director, the group said.
Motsepe, who is rumoured to be wanted by the ANC, said “I have undertaken my new role as non-executive chairman to ensure compliance with the listings requirements. I look forward to continue contributing to the global competitiveness of ARM in my new capacity”.
ARM has also created a new role appointing Jacques van der Bijl as the group’s first chief operating officer. Both leadership changes are effective from today, February 16.
While Motsepe’s role on the board is headline grabbing, the appointment of Van der Bijl as a focused operational director is important.
Shares in ARM are 35% higher over the last 12 months but the company, with its exposure to platinum group metals and gold, has underperformed its underlying investments.
The group also owns assets in thermal coal, the price of which has performed badly over the last 12 months, as well as ferroalloys – a sector buffeted by high energy prices, and which contribted towards a 56% decline in ARM’s interim profit last year.
On the ferroalloys front, ARM restructured its manganese processing activities held through Assmang, with the closure of the Cato Ridge ferromanganese smelter, sale of the properties to Assore and disposal of Assmang’s stake in Sakura Ferroalloys to Assore.
Then in September, it wrote down its investment in Bokoni Platinum Mines for R2.2bn and suspended production. The write-down took the group’s PGM division into an overall R1.3bn loss which follows R1.74bn in group impairments last year – mainly in its PGM assets.
In November it halted new investments in coal projects owing to the then perceived cost inflation of carbon taxation, mandatory emissions reporting and carbon budgeting.
ARM is to announce its full year results will be published on March 5.
