[miningmx.com] — SO the original Harmony Gold team is now officially back in the game with the appointment of Frank Abbott – former financial director of Harmony – into an executive director position at Harmony.
To be honest, Abbott has been in an out of Harmony several times since first joining the company in 1994 so he’s never been completely out of the limelight.
For instance, he took over as interim financial director at Harmony after the resignation of Nomfundo Qangule in 2007, while his involvement in the business was ratified again in early 2010 when CEO, Graham Briggs, said Abbott would maintain his seat at the company’s board. Since then, he must have dropped executive duties because Harmony’s announcement today says Abbott would relinquish his non-executive duties to look after Harmony’s business development full-time. The appointment is effective November 8.
His former Harmony colleague, Ferdi Dippenaar, is now CEO of Great Basin Gold, while Bernard Swanepoel, the centrepiece of Harmony in the Nineties and early Noughties, has been increasingly lifting his profile as CEO of Village Main.
Abbott was in his familiar reticent style when asked by Miningmx today what he intended to do in his new role.
“There’s a lot to be done,” he said. “We live in exciting times,” he added and somehow managing to sound as lowkey as ever.
He also said his job was to grow Harmony’s business which could include extending its regional influence in Papua New Guinea (PNG) where the company has a stake in the fantastically rich Wafi/Golpu copper/gold deposit, discovered when Swanepoel was still at the company. Actually the word Abbott used was to “acquire” for Harmony.
Abbott’s appointment, especially in the new business role, comes at an interesting time for Harmony.
According to some estimates, Harmony is expected to be cash positive by some R5.7bn in its 2013 financial year. Current net debt is just below R900m.
Of course, future firepower is surely to support its contribution to the development of the Wafi/Golpu mine which is expected to cost R16bn between 2012 and 2016. It won’t need to dilute, however, to fund its portion.
If Abbott is to help Harmony press ahead with a more aggressive acquisition strategy, it is surely to further entrench the gains Wafi/Golpu hands it, which is to see some 30% of future gold production generated outside of South Africa (just downgraded by Moodys on fears the country may not maintain its fiscal discipline). Against this, some 60% of future pretax earnings would be generated outside the country, all of which would aid Harmony’s investment rating.
Having been the erstwhile bean counter at Harmony when it was the darling of South African mining, he is now there as it sets about a 180 degree strategy of securing a future outside the country’s boundaries.
