Jackson Wells

Recently, three directors at Pilbara iron ore explorer Dynasty Metals (ASX:DMA) voted to remove another director, Lewis Tay, from his additional role as Executive Director which saw him perform the chief executive officer function.

The following day, Mr Tay called an extraordinary general meeting of the company and submitted an agenda that included three motions to vote those three directors off the board and fourth motion to bring on a new director with geological expertise.

Mr Tay contacted Jackson Wells to provide a helping hand. Even as our proposal was being considered, an article in The Australian Financial Review, generated by the dissident directors, attacked Mr Tay, relying heavily on trivial claims against him.

With four working days left to the extraordinary general meeting, Jackson Wells was engaged. We’re used to working in tight time frames, but this was special.

Initially, we wrote and placed statements challenging and correcting the original story, and putting the case for voting in favour of Mr Tay’s motions.

A list of major shareholders was produced and explanatory information finalised. Telephone calls to shareholders were reinforced by emailing the material to them.

Apart from removing the dissident directors, Mr Tay proposed that the head office be moved from Sydney to Perth and that directors’ expenses and fees be cut to provide the maximum amount of funds for exploration.

Having published the case against Mr Tay, the Financial Review followed with more balanced reporting. Then the Sydney Morning Herald joined in as did other business media.

The showdown came the following Monday at the unlikely venue of the Perth CWA Hall – lamingtons at ten paces!

Both sides had agreed to an impartial chairman, who conducted the ballots and declared Mr Tay’s side the winner by 33 million votes to 30 million on all four motions.

The moral of the story is that campaigns can be run in short timeframes on tight budgets if the client has realistic proposition, sticks to the media strategy and is a credible advocate for their cause.