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South Africa: No Share Scare As New Angloplat CEO Named
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
14 May 2008
Posted to the web 14 May 2008
Charlotte Mathews
Johannesburg
ANGLO Platinum's shares yesterday responded neutrally to the appointment of former AngloGold Ashanti chief operating officer Neville Nicolau to the post of CEO of Anglo Platinum from June 1.
Angloplat shares had shed 2,4%, or R30,50, to R1242,50 by late afternoon, while the platinum price had weakened 2,5% to $2050/oz.
The position of Angloplat CEO has been empty since August, after previous incumbent Ralph Havenstein said he believed the company "needed new leadership with new insights to achieve its safety goals". His resignation followed a period when Angloplat had experienced a sharp rise in fatalities, causing Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll to order the rolling shutdown of shafts at the group's Rustenburg operations to retrain employees in safety methods.
An analyst, who asked not to be named, said it had taken a long time to make the appointment and the question remained whether Nicolau's safety achievements at AngloGold had been any better than Havenstein's.
Cadiz African Harvest Asset Management head of equities Simon Hudson-Peacock said he believed Nicolau was well regarded operationally at AngloGold and was in the running for a senior position there. He departed shortly after the appointment of Mark Cutifani as AngloGold CEO. Nicolau also brought experience of deep-level, hard-rock mining. But Hudson- Peacock said Nicolau was untested in a top executive role.
Asked how he would address the factors that had caused Angloplat to fall short of production targets in the past couple of years, Nicolau said yesterday mining companies should be measured on three key outputs: safety, production and cost management.
On safety, the first approach was to change behaviour, and this had already started within Angloplat, to a mindset where people cared for themselves and those around them. The second was to manage the risks of deep-level mining and make working conditions safe.
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He said management was often seen as uncaring but they did not accept fatalities. "I believe you can eliminate them, and in time we will."
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