JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed gold play Crusader Resources on Monday announced the appointment of Marcus Engelbrecht as MD and said it planned secondary listing on the Aim to capture the benefits of the thwarted merger with Stratex International.
Engelbrecht left the employment of Aim-listed Stratex earlier this month, after Stratex shareholders voted him off the board and blocked the A$54-million takeover of Crusader.
Crusader nonexecutive chairperson Stephen Copulus said the board believed that the appointment of Engelbrecht and the secondary listing on the Aim would allow the company to seize the benefits of the previously considered merger, but with “significantly reduced” transaction risk and shareholder dilution.
Crusader has appointed UK-based advisory group Hannam & Partners to work alongside its existing Australian mandated advisers ANZ Corporate Advisory to facilitate a secondary listing on the Aim, which is expected by February.
Copulus added that Engelbrecht had strong familiarity with Crusader’s assets and that he would greatly assist in financing and developing the Borborema gold project, in Brazil.
Engelbrecht replaced Rob Smakman, who the company said had stepped down as MD following a company review.
While at Stratex, Engelbrecht had touted takeover of Crusader as a transformative transaction, while a group of shareholders believed that it did not make sense for the UK-based explorer, which is largely focused on Africa, to expand into Brazil.