[miningmx.com] — HAVE the wheels come off one of SA’s most
successful empowerment groupings?
That’s a question worth asking of Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH), the investment
company built on surface rights ownership of platinum-bearing farms in the North-
West province. After converting a royalty from platinum profits into equity in Impala
Platinum (Implats), RBH embarked on a strategy of industrialisation; a tactic
spearheaded by Niall Carroll, formerly a Deutsche Bank mining financier.
Now, however, Carroll has jumped ship – both from company and country. His
farewell from RBH is scheduled for June 21, but he in fact left a couple of months
ago to establish a company serving the gas industry, especially in Mozambique.
Carroll says the intention is to “build stuff’: an industrial park, provide logistics,
anything deemed useful to the burgeoning gas industry in places like Rovuma, off
the northern shores of Mozambique. He will operate from the UK and have a
regional office in SA, he says.
In addition to Carroll, Pieter Rorich, RBH’s Chief Investment Officer, and deemed by
some to be Carroll’s proposed replacement at RBH, has also decided to leave. Thabo
Mokgatlha, Finance Director for Royal Bafokeng Resources Management Services,
and an alternate director of Implats, is also leaving the company. The company
secretary and the Bafokeng’s head of the development foundation are also thought
to be heading out.
Mpueleng Pooe, RBH’s Public Affairs Executive, was unavailable for comment.
Miningmx left voice and text messages on his mobile phone.
Carroll says it’s typical that when the top appointees change, a ripple effect is
sometimes felt throughout the company. “People just get the feeling that this might
not be a bad time for them to be going as well,’ says Carroll in an interview. He
prefers to focus on the future, however. “We have a bit of money,’ he says of his
new company. “We’ve also secured some land. We’ve got pretty big ambitions.’
Not joining Carroll, as previously speculated, is David Brown. Brown, who’ll step
down as CEO of Implats on June 30, is still to figure out what to do next, whether in
fact, he wants to stay in the mining business. “No, David is not joining us,” says
Carroll, but who then suddenly remembers that Brown worked for ExxonMobil until
1995 when he left for Implats. But that’s another skill gone in a company in which
RBH has an interest, although Brown will be replaced by the widely respected
Terence Goodlace, formerly of Metorex and Gold Fields.
The relatively sudden and swift departure of Merafe Resources CEO, Stuart Elliot, is
another company in which RBH has a share. Elliot, responding via e-mailed
questions only, says there’s nothing untoward in his departure from the ferrochrome
producer.
“I have had a happy 12 years at Merafe seeing something created from a
Greenfield’s start-up to becoming part of the largest ferrochrome producer in the
world,’ says Elliot. Elliot’s attempt to have Government install an export levy on
chrome producers, who he contends are hurting the competitiveness of SA’s
ferrochrome industry, will continue, he says.
Analysts, however, believe Elliot’s departure is not so straightforward. “He was
never the master of his own ship,’ says one, who adds that owing to the joint
venture arrangement with Xstrata, it was the Swiss headquartered company that
always had the final veto on company strategy. Merafe’s share price has also been
under heavy pressure. Shares in Merafe have fallen a third in the last 12 months.
The notoriously cyclical nature of the ferrochrome market has also hit margins,
exacerbated by mining related inflation in SA, Merafe says. Production was down
21% in the first quarter as Eskom bought back power from Merafe.
We have removed paragraph five from the original article. The paragraph
mentioned that RBH executives Andrew Jackson and Errol Gregor have also left the
employ of the company, when in fact they have not – Editor.
