By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor
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Friday 3rd May 2002 |
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A brief notice to the stock exchange early Friday noted that Mr Mitri had resigned and that "no replacement has been made at this time."
The writing appeared on the wall for Mr Mitri when RMG informed the market Wednesday that former boss, Paul Cooney, was returning to the fold as deputy chairman and chief operating officer.
The CEO's departure also follows Thursday's resignation of the company's chief financial officer, Paul Wilkinson.
RMG's share price had been trading steadily around the 25 cents level for the past six months but a slide which began in mid-April turned into a freefall on Thursday when the stock fell below 10 cents a share on the NZSE in intraday trading.
Looking back, RMG has been on the ropes virtually ever since it listed in 2000 as it struggled to combine some 22 separate credit and receivables companies into a profitable group.
Former Baycorp chairman Jim Boult took over the top job from Paul Cooney in May last year and implemented an initiative called Project One, designed to get the company into profit.
However the company revealed this week that it expects to make an operating loss for the year to the end of June of up to A$4.85 million, excluding abnormals such as a A$3.4 million profit from the sale of oil and gas assets.
On Thursday the company gave a more detailed report to the Australian Stock Exchange showing January revenue at A$3.17 million, February revenue at $3.72 million and March revenue at $2.79 million.
RMG explained the March revenue drop as an operational issue and said that it expected an improved result for April.
Earlier this week RMG executive chairman, James Boult, said that while the company's medium term outlook is positive, various factors had affected the current year's likely result.
For long-suffering RMG shareholders, this week's saga has at least added a dose of realism and disclosure from a company that has consistently appeared to promise that the worst is behind them and that profits are just around the corner.
Just ten weeks ago, in reporting its first half result, the company told that market that "its period of reconstruction and consolidation will be complete within the current six months and that operational profitability will be well evident from its results" at the end of the financial year.
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