Dr Bob Johnson accused Havilah Resources board of ‘disenfranchising shareholders’

Millions of dollars’ worth of frozen shares in a mining company were the subject of a recent fiery public exchange between Dr Bob Johnson and senior executives.

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Millions of dollars’ worth of frozen shares in a mining company were the subject of a recent fiery public exchange between Keith Robert Johnson and senior executives.

At Havilah Resources’ annual general meeting late last year, Dr Johnson, 71, accused its board of unlawfully excluding voting shares.

And in a follow-up to the December meeting, Dr Johnson then backed an unsuccessful boardroom coup, in which he attempted to remove new chairman, Mark Stewart, and install his Sydney-based son, Peter, 44, as a director.

Dr Johnson, of Leabrook, and companies linked to him, are among four of Havilah’s top 20 shareholders, holding almost 28 million shares.

Company records of the meeting on December 15 show that more than 21 million Havilah shares worth almost $3.37 million, were “excluded” from voting on director pay and board re-election.

During the publicly filmed meeting, Dr Johnson, right, laid bare his frustrations at the “fundamentally flawed and unlawful” disqualification.

Dr Bob Johnson, founder of Maptek, speaking at the Havilah Havilah Resources Limited's Annual General Meeting in December 2018. Picture: Havilah Resources

Flanked by his wife, Gaynor, 65, he claimed it was not “requested or directed by” the corporate watchdog Australian Securities and Investments Commission, ASX or a court of “competent jurisdiction”. He argued the board had wrongly “sought to disqualify a significant proportion of the voting shares in your company from voting on all of the resolutions”. He said he would contact regulatory authorities to “ensure the abuse of process and the breach of shareholder fundamental rights is not left unaccounted for”.

Havilah’s annual report states Dr Johnson, a geologist, holds 1.65 million shares while a business of which he is director, Talager Pty Ltd, owns 1,597,147. Statsmin Nominees, of which he and his wife are directors, owns 4,556,346 shares.

A company, named in an AFP list of frozen assets contained in the court order, First Names (Jersey) Limited, is Havilah’s second largest shareholder with 19,955,425 shares.

Havilah’s outgoing chairman, Ken Williams, told shareholders that there was a “technical issue” with the shares.

While he would not debate Dr Johnson’s allegations at the meeting, he “fundamentally” disagreed with his analysis.

Mining executive Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest with Maptek founder Bob Johnson at an informal gathering in Adelaide.

“If you (Dr Johnson) are unhappy with the way in which the company has gone about conducting this meeting and handling the shares you are very well entitled to take proceedings at a later date and overturn that action. That is your right.,” he said.

“But I do not propose to respond to that today because I have responded to you in writing, extensively over the last few days.”

Contacted recently by The Advertiser, Havilah management declined to comment but said it had acted lawfully. In a statement to The Advertiser, Havilah company secretary Simon Gray would not discuss individual shareholders but said it was “aware of a court order that applies to, and restricts dealings in, a number of shares held in the company”.

“While Havilah is not a party to the proceedings from which the court order arose... (it) is required to, and continues to, comply with the requirements,” he said.

Dr Johnson, who has repeatedly refused to comment to The Advertiser, stepped down in November 2013 from the Dulwich-based company he co-founded, which controls more than 16,000 sq/km of mineral-rich land in the state’s far northeast.