News

January 06, 2009

Weatherley International Transforms Its Potential With A Series Of Deals In The Last Days Of 2008

By Charles Wyatt

During the last few days of each year Minews keeps a sharp eye out to see if any companies land a bit of bad news on the market in the hope that no one will notice. This year Weatherley International came out with a press release on December 30th, but close reading of it showed that chief executive Rod Webster has played a blinder and that the company is now well set to meet the rigours of 2009. What he has done is enter into loan facility agreements with Dundee Precious Metals and commodities trading company Louis Dreyfus to provide Weatherley with US$11.3 million of new funding. These negotiations took place at a difficult time as somebody, so far unnamed, had come up with a claim against the company in mid-November. Rod, on a well deserved holiday in Australia, dismissed it as a little local difficulty with Barclays Bank, but as it has the potential to be material in the context of currently available cash resources he had the shares suspended all the same.

That is still the current position, but the fact that Dundee and Louis Dreyfus have carried on with this funding shows what they think of the claim. In fact Rod Webster sees no rush to get the suspension lifted until Weatherly announces its results for the year to end June 2008. That ought to be in February. As if suspension and the negotiation of new funding was not enough, Rod Webster also had to oversee the closure of the company’s Tsumeb West and the Matchless copper mines in Namibia, as...