Artemis’ Dodd: Bumi board failures are ‘unacceptable’

John Dodd is backing Nathaniel Rothschild’s proposal to replace the majority of the board at Bumi and views its corporate governance failures as ‘unacceptable.’

The Artemis co-founder and manager of the Artemis Alpha trust has pledged his support for Rothschild, who quit the board in October, and his plans to replace 12 of the 14 directors on the board of the mining group.

‘I have followed closely the situation at Bumi. The current board’s relationships make them conflicted,' Dodd said.  

‘I cannot see how they can change that. Furthermore, they now appear to be attempting to blame Nat Rothschild for their own lack of leadership and their failure to address the serious corporate governance concerns that are obvious to everyone. This is unacceptable.’

Dodd added: ‘I trust Nat’s judgment and integrity completely. The team he has assembled is impressive. In my opinion, it offers shareholders the best chance of restoring value at this company.’

However, at the end of January the board of Bumi rejected the bid by Rothschild and his call to overhaul the board.

The firm warned if these board changes occurred, it would cause further shareholder disputes among other issues, and is urging shareholders to vote against Rothchild’s proposals.

It also believes Rothschild’s board would not be able to separate the firm from the Bakrie Group and its 29% stake in Bumi Resources.

Rothschild, who founded Bumi in 2010 in conjunction with the Indonesian Bakrie family, is seeking to install himself as executive director and Conservative MP Jonathan Djangoly as chairman of a new corporate governance committee, according to reports.

He is also proposing Brock Gill as CEO and Wal King as chairman.