Embattled coal miner Bumi has revamped its management team ahead of what chief executive Nick von Schirnding claims will be a “relaunch” for a group that has been engulfed by scandal.
Industry veterans Paul Fenby and Keith Downham were unveiled as the new finance director and mining director respectively as Bumi slumped to an $85 million (£54.8 million) first-half loss.
The group is recovering from a review of financial irregularities that discovered $201 million of unauthorised expenditure in one of its core business units.
Von Schirnding said: “You can have the best controls and systems in place, but if you have the wrong people, then things will still go wrong. This is all about getting the right people in the right positions.”
Von Schirnding is also finalising a complicated, multi-stage deal that will see the group part ways with Indonesia’s powerful Bakrie family, who co-founded Bumi with financier Nat Rothschild.
The scion of the Rothschild banking dynasty opposes this deal, as it will see another hugely wealthy Indonesian, Samin Tan, own nearly half of Bumi’s shares.
Von Schirnding said: “Ultimately, you have to have faith with the company you’re getting into bed with. This is absolutely not rearranging the deckchairs, this is recalibrating, relaunching this company.”
