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Rising star ... Andrew Michelmore wins over his Communist masters. Illustration: John Shakespeare
Scott Rochfort is in awe of the torrents of praise for Comrade Michelmore.

THE tributes have poured in for OZ Minerals' chief debt deadline extender Andrew Michelmore, who resigned from the miner yesterday to take up a job at the state-owned Chinese company that is offering to buy most of the group's assets.

Only 10 months since taking the helm of the newly merged Oxiana-Zinifex, Michelmore has presided over an $8 billion slump in the company's market capitalisation and a $2.5 billion full-year loss.

Now, thanks to China Minmetals offering to buy all of OZ's assets for $1.63 billion - bar a piece of dirt in the Woomera firing range and an Indonesian gold deposit being sold off to a Hong Kong group - the company at least has managed to pay down most of its debts.

Michelmore's new employer could barely contain its excitement. "We are thrilled to have Andrew on board," gushed a propagandist for the Red Chinese-controlled commodities group.

"His immense experience in resources and his leadership skills will help underpin the development of our business in Australia, subject of course to shareholder approval of the OZ Minerals transaction."

Almost makes you wonder if Minmetals' bid for OZ was just part of a communist ploy to lure the Rhodes Scholar. Or maybe Minmetals is just happy it bought the business at a fraction of what it was worth a year ago.

The adulation for the former OZ leader spilt out into several day trading chatrooms. "What a decision, well done to the boys at Min Metals," reasoned one irony-free post on the Hot Copper website. "Fantastic news. But why is the share price declining?" said another. "That's the best news I've heard in a year," said a happy investor.

'Bold' move
There also might be some lingering questions for OZ shareholders before the scheduled annual meeting on June 11 where they will vote on the Minmetals deal. When the company changed its name to OZ Minerals after the Oxiana-Zinifex merger, its then chief, Owen Hegarty, said it was a "bold name reflecting the coming together of two successful companies".

Maybe the company can now search for a more feeble name for a company that has been forced to sell its assets to keep its bankers at bay.

OZ Minerals at least has headed off one area of potential conflict at the upcoming shareholders' meeting. It confirmed that Michelmore and other senior OZ staff heading to Minmetals had agreed to waive their termination benefits.

This means Michelmore will miss out on a payout of at least $1.9 million (worth 12 months' fixed remuneration) to move over to Minmetals. This will be well shy of the controversial $8.4 million send-off for Owen Hegarty last year.