People: Lenigas on the move

 

David Lenigas, the entrepreneurial Australian executive chairman of Africa-focused mini-conglomerate Lonrho, is having a busy summer. He has recently flown to China with Lonrho’s chief executive, Geoffrey White, to prepare a Hong Kong float for the company, which would then move its senior listing there from AIM.

As well as talking to the likes of the state-owned £4 billion China Africa Development Fund, Lenigas and White have been discussing building up Lonrho’s 63 per cent-owned Luba Freeport in the West African state of Equatorial Guinea with other Chinese state groups interested in growth prospects for the Gulf of Guinea oil region. Celebrating buoyant turnover and plunging nine-month losses for the acquisitive AIM counter, Lenigas speaks of break-even round the corner.

Having raised some £170 million since 2006 for Lonrho on AIM, Lenigas has recently tapped investors for a further £1.5 million for another of his AIM ventures, Leni Gas & Oil, with interests in Spain, Trinidad and the Gulf of Mexico. Formerly associated with the aggressive Cambrian Mining team and ex-boss of Bangladesh coal play Asia Energy (now GCM Resources), Lenigas also heads Zimbabwe-focused LonZim, which is building up mobile phone and internet use across the region. 

He is, however, stepping down from the chairmanship of another AIM concern, Templar Minerals, whose hopes of developing gold investments in Fiji and Georgia have come to nought.

Templar has agreed a reverse takeover with Ortac Resources, a private concern with a gold project in Slovakia, whose owner, affable mining investment player Anthony Balme, is the new chairman.