David Usasz takes over as chairman of struggling Gold Coast group Smiles Inclusive Limited

A Gold Coast listed dental company has appointed a new chairman, three weeks after losing its CEO.

The company had some trouble with its dental practices during the year.

GOLD Coast listed dental company Smiles Inclusive has replaced its chairman, three weeks after losing its CEO.

In an announcement to the ASX this afternoon, the company said deputy chairman David Usasz would take over the top board role from David Herlihy, effective immediately.

Mr Herlihy intends to remain on the board and will seek re-election at the company’s 2019 AGM.

David Usasz.

Smiles Inclusive went into a trading halt on March 1 after more than half its value was wiped from the stock exchange in a single morning after it revealed disappointing half-year results.

The share price for the company, which listed at $1 a share in April last year and was previously valued at close to $60 million, was yesterday trading at 17.5c by 2pm with market capilisation just over $10 million.

Founding CEO Mike Timoney stepped down as CEO in the wake of the poor performance, with Smiles announcing Tony McCormack has taken on the role of chief operating officer.

Smiles reported an after-tax loss of $1.59 million on practice revenue of $16.1 million, after the unexpected deaths of a practitioner and business manager, and the nondisclosure of a court case by a practice vendor.

The company said a failure to put practitioner monitoring and staff rostering systems in place and additional integration and stamp duty costs were also to blame for the poor result.

It earned a reprieve from its lender NAB, which agreed to waive any breaches of its $36 million debt agreement with the company.

Mike Timoney is no longer CEO of Smiles Inclusive. Pic: Annette Dew

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The ASX statement said Mr Usasz had more than 40 years’ experience in business in Australia and Hong Kong.

“In the past five years, he has held the position of Chair of ASX-listed entities Garda Diversified Property Fund and GARDA Capital Group, and director of Cromwell Property Group,” it said.