Structured settlements

Troubled midcap miner Metorex on Friday staunched its share-price haemorrhage with the announcement of far-reaching restructuring that would see the stepping down of growth-era CEO Charles Needham, the exiting of founder Simon Malone, the creation of an all-nonexecutive "board oversight committee", and the disposal of cash-consuming assets to pay for a new bank loan.

Metorex, once a boom-time JSE darling but hit now by project delays, commodity price collapse and a shareholder revolt, said it had mandated the newly created oversight committee to review the company's key performance indicators and focus particularly on the completion of the Ruashi copper project, which was being built in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Metorex said that the oversight committee would also see to structural changes and the recomposition of the board.

This followed an earlier announcement of a R922-million debt and equity finance plan to complete the production and ramp up of its Ruashi copper/cobalt project.

New executives would be introduced to assist with company management, the reduction of borrowings and the disposal of noncore and cash-consuming assets "in the short-to-medium term", in order to repay the new Standard Bank term-loan facility.

The oversight committee would also address the future of Metorex's investment in Copper Resource Corporation (CRC); monitor Ruashi's hedge, and secure "longer-term and appropriately structured financing" to improve the project pipeline. read more