Sean Smith, The West AustralianJanuary 28, 2012, 9:26 am
George Jones and Liam Twigger are back in the same firm again after nearly 20 years, with the Sundance Resources and Gindalbie Metals chairman agreeing to also take the helm of Mr Twigger's corporate advisory and institutional broking business, PCF Capital.
The duo, good friends whose careers have regularly intersected in WA's tight-knit business community, last worked alongside each other at Fincorp, the risk management firm set up by Mr Jones and Terry Strapp.
Mr Twigger spent five years with the business after joining it from Bond Gold in 1989, later moving on to Macquarie and Bankers Trust.
Mr Twigger, PCF managing director, said yesterday that Mr Jones' extensive corporate and mining experience would be in- valuable to PCF as it sought to do more and bigger deals in corporate advisory and broking. "He's a rainmaker and he's got fantastic connections," Mr Twigger said.
PCF will be particularly keen to tap Mr Jones' long-standing and strong relationships in China as it seeks to leverage off its corporate advisory practice to build its fledgling broking and capital markets business, scaling up from an initial focus on resources stocks capitalised at $50 million to $100 million to potential $1 billion plays.
The stockbroking arm was launched last year, headed by former Argonaut Capital corporate advisory director Trevor Benson.
"As anyone who has worked with George knows, he is extremely hands-on and more than happy to share his knowledge and provide strategic advice," Mr Twigger said.
Mr Jones and PCF conceded the time he would be able to allocate to his new chairmanship may be limited initially by his responsibilities at Sundance, where he is working to close a protracted $1.65 billion takeover of the Perth-based African iron ore hopeful by China's Hanlong Mining.
Sundance said 10 days ago that it was working towards a February 29 deadline to finalise key terms over its flagship iron ore project, Mbalam, despite delays caused by elections in the Republic of Cameroon.
Gindalbie is also in a challenging space as the Mid West magnetite miner counts down towards first production from its Karara project in the September quarter.
Mr Jones, 67, all but retired three years ago, only to return to corporate life after the loss of the Sundance board in a plane crash in the Congo in 2010. He said yesterday he had been offered other board positions but was attracted to PCF by his interest in corporate advisory and deal-making and the opportunity to work again with Mr Twigger.
SDL Price at posting:
41.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
