Surprise Driver In Charge Of The Bus

The Age

Tuesday March 4, 2008

Barry FitzGerald

OXIANA'S $12 billion merger with Zinifex - codenamed Venice - came as no surprise. But the fact that it will be Zinifex's urbane chief executive, Andrew Michelmore, and not Oxiana's bustling chief, Owen Hegarty, who will be managing director of the new group was a surprise.

Hegarty and his beloved "Mighty Ox" have been a permanent fixture on the Melbourne mining scene for more than 20 years. That goes doubly so for his enthusiasm in promoting the prospects for Oxiana and the broader resources sector. It has always been a case of oodles of this and stratospheres of that.

The Mornington Peninsula old boy, near 60, is not disappearing altogether. But it is a case of moving into the background to let Michelmore, 55, a Rhodes scholar, take the reins.

Hegarty stays on the board and initially at least, he has the onerous task of ensuring the integration goes to plan.

"I'm still very much on board," Hegarty said. "I will be an active director of the company so I am still very much on the bus. I may not be in the driver's seat but I'm not at the back of the bus either. So don't write me off just yet," said the man who has taken Oxiana from a hard-up explorer in the 1980s to the $6 billion whip hand in yesterday's merger deal.

Hegarty was keen to highlight the benefit of having Michelmore run the show. Apart from his experience in extracting the best possible value in the 2005 Xstrata and BHP Billiton takeover battle for WMC where he was managing director, Michelmore had also done "some terrific work for the Russians" after his stint at WMC.

"He is committed, he's got great spirit and drive and we share the same vision," Hegarty said. "So here is somebody who is capable of taking over the reins and continuing to drive forward the Mighty Ox."

He said the "great thrust behind this merger is the complementary nature of the assets, the people, the development pipeline and the exploration portfolio. As far as I'm concerned the best is yet to come. We've only just started. We've got a long way to go here." Hegarty and Michelmore decided to pursue the merger a little over a month ago over a cup of tea.

© 2008 The Age

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