Wool Equities directors resign en masse

Photo / Northern Advocate.

Wool Equities Ltd directors resigned en masse today and its general manager took redundancy after the company bought back a chunk of its shares to re-invent itself.

The company has sold off its high-profile keratin technology, by selling Keratec Ltd to its US partner Keraplast Technologies , and today directors, David Brian Henry, and Andrew Philip Kelly, both of Auckland, Alistair Polson, of Wanganui, Andy Pearce, of Christchurch, and Joachim von Roy, of Auckland, all resigned.

Group general manager, James West took redundancy as the company switched from a biotech focus to one of wool development.

After buying back 8.23 million shares at 17.4c each, the company expects to have cut its shares on issue from 23.9m to 16.68m, and the number of shareholders from 9250 to 7944.

The farmer-owned company has $2.5 million cash left over.

In 2007, the then chairman, Pearce, signalled major changes to "protect assets" and said the company would be split into two separate vehicles - biotechnology and commercial development of the wool industry.

That would allow capital raising in the biotechnology business while protecting the historic $290 million in Wool Board tax credits - available to offset tax liabilities - and shareholders would be able choose whether to support investment in biotechnology, the wool industry, or both.

At that time he claimed the company's future lay with Keratec, which sells protein recovered from wool for cosmetics and dietary supplements with emphasis on its role as a component in the body's new cell growth and healing after injury.

On August 31, Wool Equities announced continuing losses of $3.53m, on revenue of only $178,000, down 68 per cent.

-NZPA