Ireland: Management Change at Topaz Energy
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Friday, 17 July 2009 |
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John Williamson, former Payzone director has joined fuel group Topaz as its chief financial officer.
The move by Mr Williamson comes more than a year after his and Mr
Nagle's removal from the Payzone board precipitated an acrimonious
legal battle and a bid by the two former directors to remove other
executives from the board. Topaz confirmed that Mr Williamson joined
the company in June. He replaces Eddie O'Brien, who became CEO of Topaz
(PetrolWorld 170209) after Danny Murray retired from the group.
Controlled by Dublin-based Ion Equity, Topaz was created following
Ion's acquisitions in 2005 and 2007 of Statoil and Shell forecourts in
Ireland. The deal cost about €400m. Topaz generated estimated sales of
about €3.5bn last year. The group recently won a €20m contract to
provide diesel fuel to garda vehicles throughout the State.
The decision by Mr Williamson to join Topaz could rule out any notions
either he or Mr Nagle may have harboured about wrestling control of
Payzone from majority owners Balderton Capital. The two former
executives own a combined 12pc stake in Payzone, while Balderton
Capital controls 54pc.
The struggling electronic-payments company has just about been treading
water after posting a €206m pre-tax loss in its last financial
year. Last week it reported a net loss for the six months to the
end of March of nearly €92m on revenue of just over €585m. That
compared to a net loss of over €166m in the same period last year.
Payzone was also granted a waiver from its banks last week on a
covenant breach. In conjunction with its main banker, Royal Bank of
Scotland, Payzone has been attempting to refinance a nearly €292m debt
pile.
PetrolWorld 160709
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