Board changes at OreCorp

Resources company OreCorp has announced several changes to its board, a day after its major shareholder Silvercorp Metals gave its blessing to Perseus Mining for its off-market takeover bid for OreCorp.

Yesterday, Jeff Quartermaine-led Perseus told the market that OreCorp shareholder Silvercorp had agreed to divest its 15.61 per cent in the target to Perseus. 

Following this development, OreCorp announced that four board members - including executive chair Matthew Yates and managing director/chief executive officer Henk Diederichs - had resigned effective immediately in an ASX update today.

"The company has appointed two nominees of Perseus to the board," OreCorp said.

"Mr Quartermaine will serve as chair of the board and Lee-Anne De Bruin will take on the role of chief executive officer and managing director of the company." 

Along with Mr Quartermaine, Ms De Bruin will remain in her role at Perseus as the company's chief financial officer. Neither will be remunerated for their new roles at OreCorp on top of their existing commitments at Perseus.

Both Mr Yates and Mr Diederichs have committed to providing consultancy advice for a transitional period. 

In August last year, Canada-based Silvercorp launched a takeover bid for OreCorp, offering shareholders 15 cents in cash and 0.0967 of a Silvercorp common share, valued at the time at 45 cents apiece, for each OreCorp share held.

A few months later, goldminer Perseus emerged as a potential rival bidder, following its decision to secure a 19.9 per cent stake in OreCorp, along with indicating that it would vote against Silvercorp's takeover, which needed a 75 per cent shareholder approval to pass.

Both parties proceeded to increase their offers for OreCorp over the next few months, before the target's board unanimously recommended Perseus's offer on March 25 in the absence of a superior offer.

Perseus officially launched its bid for OreCorp in January, which it upped from 55 cents to 57.5 cents per share. 

Along with submitting its bid, the Africa-focused goldminer said it received support from the Tanzanian government, with senior Perseus executives heading to the country in due course in a bid to foster key stakeholder relationships.