June 23, 2003
By Sherilee Bridge
Johannesburg - Marginal mining company Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) made more changes to its board on Friday after the abrupt resignation of its chief financial officer, Kobus Dissel, after just three months on the job.
The company, whose shares were among last year's best performers, also fell off the JSE Securities Exchange's benchmark Top 40 index on Friday. The mining company was replaced on the index by retailer Woolworths Holdings.
DRD shares closed down 1.46 percent, or 30c, at R20.90 on Friday. According to Tradek, this gives DRD a market capital of R3.85 billion against Woolworths' market capital of R5.65 billion.
Woolworths shares closed 10c lower at R6.05 on Friday.
Being bumped off the Top 40 means DRD's stock may be dumped by fund managers who track or use the Top 40 as a guide to what stocks are hot.
The company cited "personal reasons" as the basis of the latest resignation from its board. DRD said Dissel was not leaving the firm entirely and would "continue to lead the company's finance department".
It said Dissel's resignation as a director became effective at the end of this month when Ian Murray, deputy chief executive of DRD, would take over as chief financial officer
. DRD indicated that Murray would not be relinquishing his deputy chief executive title.
Mark Wellesley-Wood, the chairman and chief executive of DRD, has completely overhauled the board in the year since the exit of former chairman Roger Kebble. But Wellesley-Wood's "independent board", which included five non-executive directors, has witnessed some seat shifting.
DRD said in April that Frik Coetzee, the company's operations director, had retired due to ill health, while Nick Goodwin, its project manager on the R8 billion Argonaut project, was fired for a breach of fiduciary duty in February.
Wellesley-Wood's private assistant and the company's legal adviser both resigned in March.
DRD said in its latest statement that Deon van der Mescht, the divisional director of its South African operations and Anton Lubbe, the director of its growth and services division, had both been appointed as alternate directors to the DRD board.
According to DRD's March quarterly results presentation, Neil Pretorius was also expected to join the company from private practice as its legal adviser.
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