Nikolaenko makes WAM mark
5th August 2008, 9:00 WST
Veteran company promoter Roger Nikolaenko has put a foot on West Australian Metals after yesterday succeeding in a bid to oust Terry Shanahan and appoint three new faces to the WAM board.
A well-attended shareholders meeting voted overwhelmingly in favour of removing Mr Shanahan and appointing accountant Kevin Judge, lawyer David Sanders and former top public servant Gary Stokes as directors, alongside chairman Rodger Johnston and chief executive Leon Reisgys.
The outcome of the meeting, which was requisitioned by Nikolaenko companies controlling about 6 per cent of WAM, has cast a cloud over Mr Reisgys’ future as he has previously said he would review his position if shareholders backed the proposals.
It is expected Mr Reisgys will announce whether he is staying with the group after a meeting of the new board today.
The Nikolaenko camp had argued the board needed to be “restructured and strengthened” to help the company advance its flagship Marenica uranium project in Namibia.
The WAM board had opposed the move, arguing that Mr Nikolaenko was trying to win control of the company on the cheap, a claim he dismissed as ludicrous.
It also claimed a letter sent by the Nikolaenko companies criticising the way the company had been promoted and its handling of Marenica contained “serious material misrepresentations”.
The war of words culminated in an unsuccessful eleventh-hour bid by the WAM board to delay the shareholders meeting.
The most high profile of the three new appointees, Mr Stokes, was former deputy director-general of the Department of Industry and Resources before joining Mr Nikolaenko’s fellow uranium play, Magna Mining, earlier this year.
Yesterday’s victory came nearly two years to the day after Mr Nikolaenko failed in a similar bid to purge the board of nickel group Rusina Mining of chairman Gordon Getley, financial director Julian Tambyrajah and David Hands.
The shareholders meeting also rejected a proposed name change to West African Metals as well as a resolution to issue Canadian group Falco Investments 17 million options as partial payment for its role in helping WAM raise $2.2 million. The rejection of the options package put a question mark over the capital raising.
In addition to Marenica, where WAM recently announced an upgraded inferred resource of 34 million pounds of contained uranium, the company holds a clutch of tenements in WA.
Shares in WME closed unchanged at 18¢, capitalising the group at around $56.7 million.
KATE EMERY
PERTH
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=3&ContentID=89155