15th Oct 2014 08:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - Petropavlovsk PLC Wednesday said Pavel Maslovskiy will return to the company as chief executive as long as its board approves the move, after the company's co-founder retired as a Member of the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament.
In a statement, the miner said Maslovskiy has indicated that he will be available to re-join its board and the executive management team from October 15, and it intends to seek board approval to make him CEO at a meeting on October 21.
Current CEO Sergey Ermolenko will revert to his original role as general director of Management Company Petropavlovsk, it said.
Maslovskiy and Chairman Peter Hambro founded Petropavlovsk in 1994, but the company is now facing the need to refinance.
"It is now more than 20 years since Pavel and I set out on the road to build a major mining company in the Far East of Russia. Until he became a Senator, Pavel was responsible not only for all the planning and operational aspects of our very substantial group but also for working with the local and federal administration to build a modern, environmentally and socially responsible business. His efforts allowed us to build a group that has so far produced more than 5 million ounces of gold,2 Hambro said in a statement.
"Pavel's return to Petropavlovsk could not be more timely because of the challenges the company currently faces in connection with the imminent repayment date of its USD310.5 million convertible bonds. I welcome the fact that, when the formalities are complete, he and I can, once again, work together to finalise the group's refinancing," he added.
"Petropavlovsk needs to come to a holistic agreement with its lenders, its bondholders and its shareholders to refinance the company and I look forward once again to being part of the team as it seeks to achieve this," Maslovskiy said.
In September, the company had warned that full repayment of its existing convertible bonds due in February 2015 may not be possible and it is working on a new bond issue to exchange, including a cash element. The size of that cash element will be dependent on how successful an upcoming rights issue is.
In September, it said it had held discussions with bondholders representing around 20% of the outstanding amount owed on the existing bonds and said the majority of these, representing a total of 18% by total value of the bonds, had expressed support for the move.
Petropavlovsk shares were down 1.3% at 19.75 pence Wednesday morning.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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