Pressure mounts on MinRes to explain why directors quit
The sudden resignation of two independent directors at the troubled miner has incensed investors, super funds and proxy advisory firms alike.
Proxy advisors and super funds are demanding Mineral Resources tell the market why two independent directors suddenly departed from its board on Wednesday as another governance scandal threatens to engulf the embattled miner.
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the powerful proxy adviser to super funds and other large fund managers, said the lack of explanation for why Susie Corlett and Jacqueline McGill had resigned raised serious questions about what they had seen internally.
"Corlett has been on the board for four years and either had a disagreement with the CEO and/or chairman about what is going on, or she feels it necessary to jump," Vasily Kolesnikoff, head of ANZ research at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) told Capital Brief.
"There remain questions about what really caused her to move."
The market appears to harbour similar worries. Shares in the $3.2 billion miner fell by 9% on Wednesday following the announcement that simply thanked them for their time at the company. They are now down 76% over the last 12 months after after reports that founder CEO Chris Ellison had allegedly engaged in a tax evasion scheme that had enriched him and other executives at Mineral Resources' expense.
