Ncondezi Strengthens Board with Power Expertise

RNS Number : 0946X

Ncondezi Coal Company Limited

05 February 2013

 



Ncondezi Strengthens Board with Power Expertise

5 February 2013: Ncondezi Coal Company Limited ("Ncondezi" or the "Company") (AIM: NCCL) is pleased to announce, with immediate effect, the appointments of Peter O'Connor and Christiaan Schutte as Non-Executive Directors and the resignation of Colin Harris from the Board of Ncondezi.

Peter O'Connor and Christiaan Schutte have both had long and extensive careers at Eskom, the South African electricity public utility which is the largest producer of electricity in Africa, an importer of electricity from Mozambique and is among the top seven utilities in the world in terms of generation capacity and among the top nine in terms of sales.

Commenting on the Board restructuring, Michael Haworth, Non-Executive Chairman said "I am delighted to welcome Peter and Christiaan to the Board. They bring with them a wealth of power expertise in both generation and transmission which will be invaluable as we transform from a coal explorer into a power generation company and progress our 300MW power project through the detailed design, planning and project funding stages over the next eighteen months towards construction in 2014 and ultimately power generation in 2017.

On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Colin for the valuable contribution and support he has provided to the Company as we advanced the Project through the exploration and feasibility study stages to its current development phase.  We wish him well with his future endeavours."

Peter O'Connor, aged 61, had a career at Eskom spanning just over twenty years. Most recently he was Senior General Manager of the Capital Expansion Division, which was responsible for the EPCM of all the company's generation and transmission expansion projects, as well as the construction of a 1050MW gas power station, which was built in record time.  Prior to this, he held senior management positions in the Generation Division, where he successfully increased plant availability from 78% to 93% and at the Transmission Division, where he was responsible for the network delivery, network expansion and system operations. He gained operational experience as the manager of Kriel, Arnot and Kendal power stations. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering and is a patent lawyer.

Christiaan Schutte, aged 51, worked at Eskom for over twenty years and held a number of senior management positions.  Most recently he was Senior General Manager of the Group Technology Division and responsible for all the engineering functions at Eskom, including design accountability for new power stations, transmission lines and distribution development.  Prior to this he was Senior General Manger of the Generation Division, managing five power stations with over 18,000MW total installed capacity, an operational budget of 3.8 billion Rand and a capital budget just under 4 billion Rand.  Operational experience was gained at Majuba power station, which he also integrated into a single cluster operation, and Kendal power station.  He holds a degree in mechanical engineering.

In accordance with Rule 17 and Paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules for Companies, further information in relation to the appointments of Mr Schutte and Mr O'Connor are set out below:

Christiaan Ernst Schutte

Present directorships and/or partnerships: None

At the date of his appointment as a Director, Mr Schutte did not own any ordinary shares in Ncondezi.

Peter Andrew O'Connor

Present directorships and/or partnerships: None

At the date of his appointment as a Director, Mr O'Connor did not own any ordinary shares in Ncondezi.

No further disclosures are required under Schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules for Companies.

For further information please contact:

Enquiries:

Ncondezi Services (UK) Limited: www.ncondezicoal.com	Nigel Walls Hanno Pengilly Alex Buck	[phone]
Liberum Capital Limited: NOMAD & Broker	Michael Rawlinson Chris Bowman Christopher Kololian	[phone]
Canaccord Genuity: Joint Broker	Andrew Chubb	[phone]
finnCap: Joint Broker	Matthew Robinson Elizabeth Johnson Joanna Weaving	[phone]
Pelham Bell Pottinger:	Daniel Thöle Weston Macklem	[phone]

 

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