KEY POINTS:
The top jobs at biotech investor Wool Equities and its subsidiary Keratec are to be folded into one as part of cost-cutting efforts.
While retaining her role as boss of Wool Equities, Elizabeth Hopkins is replacing Bruce Foulds as chief executive of Keratec, a move designed to "reduce our total corporate overhead and our burn rate", according to Wool Equities chairman Andy Pearce.
"Neither company is generating cash at the moment, so we need to reduce that burn rate to conserve the cash that Wool Equities has to invest in Keratec," he said.
Wool Equities, a technology investment company with shareholdings in a range of companies focused on the biotech sector and commercialisation of technologies derived from the pastoral sector, is mainly owned by sheep farmers who got shares as part of a carve-up of Wool Board assets in 2003.
Keratec, which took out a US patent on the process used to recover natural keratin from wool this year and is seeking six other patents, made a $870,000 loss in the six months to last December 31.
Pearce said the latest measure followed the transfer of Wool Equities' headquarters to Lincoln - where Keratec is also based - at the beginning of the year. "We're just consolidating a bit and cutting down on the rate of spend," he said.
Keratec and Foulds had "agreed to terminate their business relationship effective August 10, 2007, on mutually acceptable terms", Wool Equities said.
Hopkins, who joined Wool Equities from Encoate, a joint venture between AgResearch and Ballance Agrinutrients, took on the extra role at Keratec from yesterday.
But Foulds, effectively the founding chief executive of Keratec, said the reason for the move was that he had fulfilled a contract to establish the company and develop it to a certain stage.
"That's really been achieved so we've agreed that now's a good time to move on. In terms of milestones achieved it's probably a good time to be handing over."
