Alterra has hired Pendulum Capital to manage the next stage of its south-west avocado project and announced chief executive Oliver Barnes is leaving the company.
Alterra has hired Pendulum Capital to manage the next stage of its south-west avocado project and announced chief executive Oliver Barnes is leaving the company.
Pendulum Capital, led by agribusiness investors Peter Fogarty and Greg Harvey, is associated with Penagri Holdings which acquired a 17.42 per cent stake in Alterra in May as part of a $3.7 million capital raising, making it the company’s second largest shareholder behind Sandon Capital.
According to a statement on the ASX, the decision to engage Pendulum was made after a strategic and operational review by Alterra’s board of directors to ensure the project was delivered on time and on budget.
Pendulum will work on the project for the next 18 weeks and be paid $320,000 of which 50 per cent will be paid in cash and 50 per cent in fully paid ordinary shares at 4.6 cents each.
Alterra chair John McGlue said the company decided to de-risk the project implementation and take action to ensure the project’s success for its investors.
“We as a board have been continuously examining and analysing our big project to make sure that it remains robust, that our development plan remains strong and appropriate and that we have got the right skills to execute,” Mr McGlue told Business News.
“In the process of that we have reached the conclusion that we need to make some changes that we think are in the best interests of the company and the best interests of shareholders so we made the changes.”
Oliver Barnes, who has been chief executive of Alterra since March 2019, is leaving the company as chief executive.
Mr McGlue said the project was ready for its next stage which required new skillsets.
“Now that it’s all designed we are applying different skillsets to take it to the next level and that is to execute the construction and to do that on time and on budget and that means we are going to have a new chief executive who will oversee that in time,” Mr McGlue said.
“The imperative right now is to make sure the project is delivered as we need it to be.”
He thanked Mr Barnes for his contributions.
Alterra’s southwest avocado project is in its second stage which involves planting 24,000 trees across 52 hectares.
Shares in Alterra were down 2.3 per cent to 4.3 cents each when the market closed this afternoon.
