9th May 2018 17:42
LONDON (Alliance News) - Pathfinder Minerals PLC on Wednesday said it has switched up its executive team less than a week ahead of a vote to remove its chief executive and non-executive chairman, whilst it has also raised GBP250,000.
Pathfinder has appointed Blair Sergeant as its new chief executive. Sergeant is an "experienced" mining financier and director, it said, and he was previously finance head at formerly London-listed Coal of Africa Ltd.
Simon Farrell, its new co-chairman, is a mining "entrepreneur" who was formerly CEO at Coal of Africa.
Once they are appointed Pathfinder's current CEO Nick Trew will move to executive director and Non-Executive Chairman Henry Bellingham, who is also a Conservative Member of the UK Parliament, will become non-executive co-chairman alongside Farrell.
Current Finance Director Robert Easby will leave his role, but Pathfinder said he will continue to oversee the finance and company secretarial functions.
In late April, the company urged shareholders to reject proposals put by a shareholder to remove Trew and Bellingham from their positions, and a vote had been set for Tuesday next week. Pathfinder gave no information on the planned general meeting meeting.
The two new appointees come as the requisitioning shareholder had looked the put James Normand and James Lumley in the two positions.
A month prior, The Times had reported a former stockbroker, Richard Jennings, had requisitioned the meeting to remove Trew and Bellingham accusing them of making misleading statements to the stock market.
Specifically, it said Jennings alleged they had given an unrealistically positive view of its long-running battle to reclaim its licences in Mozambique from a former business partner.
The company has been locked in a legal dispute since 2011 over the mining concessions, which it says were appropriated from a subsidiary and given to Pathfinder's former partner General Jacinto Veloso.
As part of this dispute, Pathfinder on Wednesday said it has raised GBP250,000 through issuing 25.0 million shares at 1.00 pence each to give the company the capital it needs to keep pursuing its licences.
It has also issued a warrant alongside each share, exercisable at 1.50p for three years.
Shares closed down 2.5% on Wednesday at 0.78p.
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