A SUBSTANTIAL recovery in the share price of Minmet has been predicted by the new chairman of the troubled small exploration company.
Mr Jeremy Metcalf, a London-based corporate financier who took over as chairman last September, told the handful of shareholders attending the company's extraordinary general meeting in Doyle's Skylon hotel in Dublin that he was currently negotiating the purchase, for shares, of a cash generating resources company.
Minmet's shares are currently languishing at 1.125p and have not traded since last November.
The company's major problems have now been dealt with and it is looking at number of opportunities in the natural resources sector, Mr Metcalf said.
As well as the proposed purchase of a resources company, Mr Metcalf also told the meeting that Minmet was looking at a gold project near Europe.
"I have gold mining and gold financing experience. I have always made money with gold," said Mr Metcalf when asked to explain his interest in Minmet.
The company's overheads have been cut from £250,000 a year to £130,000 and an accommodation has been reached with creditors, he said.
Mr Metcalf took over as chairman after the resignation last September of Mr Paul Bristol, who led the company's disastrous foray into the landscape gardening business. Minmet reported and extraordinary loss of £102,000 in its interim results from the sale to its original owners of the CDC landscape business in Britain. It was bought in 1993 for £600,000.
A board inquiry concluded that Minmet would not be successful in any legal action taken against its advisers on the purchase of CDC, even though the company lost its single largest contract eight days after Minmet bought it, Mr Metcalf said. Shareholders yesterday retrospectively approved the sale.
Mr Bristol remains the largest shareholder in the company with a stake of more than 20 per cent, worth about £500,000 at the current share price. Mr Metcalf has £10,000 worth of Minmet shares. However, Mr Bristol is considering disposing of his shares, Mr Metcalf told shareholders.
Shareholders were also told that the issue of continuing finance for the company s. Emerging Money subsidiary had been resolved. A group of unnamed investors has bought 72.5 per cent of the company which provides a screen-based news service on Russia, in return for an investment of £440,000.
Minmet will retain a 27.5 per cent stake but has no funding commitments.
The group's main asset remains its 59.2 per cent stake in Connary Minerals, an exploration company with gold mining interests in Portugal. The company has sufficient funds for the next three months and is in strong position to raise further finance said Mr Metcalf.
