‘Right out of the blue’: DroneShield serves up another twist with CEO, chairman exit
Even though both were criticised for selling down large amounts of stock earlier this year, their departure still spooked the market, wiping $500 million from Droneshield’s value.
We may never know what really happened behind the scenes at DroneShield to trigger the double departure of its chief executive Oleg Vornik and chair Peter James after a decade each at the top of the company.
But despite the pressure both men have faced after a highly criticised share selldown late last year, the news still caught the market off guard. The stock fell 13.5% on Wednesday, erasing $500 million from its market capitalisation.
In an interview with Capital Brief, James was keen to stress that it was an orderly transition process — and that he was not in cahoots with Vornik over a joint exit.
“Certainly no plan, certainly not together,” he said.
“Mine is a fairly simple, practical outcome. I’ve been chair here for over 10 years. I’ve been re-elected three times in an AGM. I’m coming up for my fourth re-election. That would be most unusual, I think, for a chair of a listed company to stand again, and mean I’d be there for 13 years.”
