News article Coretrack and CEO part ways early (The West Australian (Perth)) 02/08/2011
August 2, 2011 Tuesday First Edition
Drilling services group Coretrack has shown its chief executive the door seven months before he was due to step down, citing its transition from a developer of new technology to commercial operator.
The development came after company chairman Matt Birney saw off a shareholder challenge to his position and Coretrack's move into oil and gas drilling with an experimental rig.
Coretrack announced yesterday that Nanne van t Riet had been told his services were no longer required on a day-to-day basis and he would be relinquishing control of the company immediately.
It will continue paying Mr van t Riet's salary until his contract expires in February at a cost to the company of about $175,000.
Coretrack announced in May that the chief executive would not seek an extension of his contract.
As we are now moving out of the R&D phase and into the commercialisation phase, it is the board's view that the company would benefit from a fresh start sooner rather than later at a senior management level, Mr Birney said.
Mr van t Riet could not be contacted yesterday. Neil Hass, general manager of subsidiary Globe Drill, has been appointed acting chief executive until a new one is appointed.
An extraordinary general meeting sought by some shareholders to remove Mr Birney as a Coretrack director was cancelled after one of the participants withdrew support for the move. The pullout by shareholder Paul Callaghan on Friday meant the dissident group no longer represented the more than five per cent of shareholders required to convene the meeting.
It's clear that this EGM never had the support of anywhere near the majority of shareholders, in particular the major shareholders, Mr Birney said.
The former State Liberal leader blamed the revolt on a few shareholders who wanted Coretrack to focus on low-value, low-risk drilling instead of potentially more lucrative deep drilling.
Sigma Capital, which controls the biggest chunk of the company and has raised about $25 million on its behalf, has backed Mr Birney and the direction the board is taking under his chairmanship.
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