Parkmead Regulatory News (PMG)

13 Jan 2006 11:03

Interregnum PLC13 January 2006 For immediate release Interregnum PLC "Interregnum" Board Changes and Restructuring Plan Interregnum, the technology merchant bank, is today announcing changes to itsboard of directors and a business restructuring plan. Following an improved performance over the first half of the current financialyear as outlined in the trading update on December 21st 2005, a fundamentalreview of the business has been undertaken, which is designed both to furtherimprove Interregnum's investment and deal-making processes and reduce costs. Asa result, the following changes will take place with immediate effect: 1 The Operating Board of the company will be substantially restructured. Ken Olisa, founder of Interregnum and currently Chairman and Chief Executive will become non-Executive Chairman. Niall Doran will step up to become Chief Executive Officer. Martin Cooper remains Chief Financial Officer. Rupert Cook, Dr John Forrest, Geoff Shingles, Richard Fifield and Roger Jeynes will all step down from the Board, while Ian Taylor will move to a non-Executive role. There will be two new non-Executive appointments as follows: Colin Goodall is currently non-Executive Chairman of Dana Petroleum plc. Prior to this, he had a 24-year upstream oil career with the BP group, during which time he became the first Chief of Staff within the BP group. From 1995 to 1999 he served as Chief Financial Officer of BP Europe and then as BP's senior representative in Russia. Colin will chair the Audit Committee. The directorships and partnerships held by Colin Robert Goodall (61) currently and over the five years preceding the date of appointment are as follows: Dana Petroleum plc, Asite plc, Sindicatum Carbon Capital Ltd and Vitaluse Ltd. He was previously a director of Oilfield Cataloguing Services Ltd and Bidcom Limited. Brian Wilson is a former Labour government minister who began in the Scottish Office in 1997 before moving to the Department of Trade and Industry. He subsequently returned to the Scottish Office before briefly becoming a Foreign Office minister. He returned to the DTI as energy minister after the 2001 election, until he left the government in June 2003. He is now a special advisor to the prime minister on Trade and Energy and is a member of the Privy Council. The directorships and partnerships held by Brian Wilson (57) currently and over the five years preceding the date of appointment are as follows: Celtic plc and Amec Nuclear. He was previously a director of Core Technical Services and West Highland Publishing Company Ltd. There are no other matters which are required to be announced as required under paragraph (f) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules. Mel Morris remains a non-executive director and will chair the remuneration committee. 2 The Advisory Board of Interregnum will be disbanded. 3 Interregnum will be restructured along three broad divisions - UK, US and the Portfolio division. As part of the streamlining process, there will be a number of redundancies in the UK division which are expected to produce savings of £0.7m. Interregnum will retain its technology focus - with an increasing emphasis onsecurity - with activities centred on principal finance, syndicated finance andhigher-value corporate finance transactions. Niall Doran, CEO of Interregnum commented: "Interregnum will become increasingly focused on near-term profitability toprovide its shareholders with satisfactory returns. The Group also needs morescale and the changes being implemented are all designed to ensure that thesegoals are achieved." Ken Olisa, Non-executive Chairman, commented: "I believe the time is right to move Interregnum onto the next stage of itsdevelopment. I would personally like to thank all of those board membersstepping down for their advice and support which has been invaluable. Equally, Iam very much looking forward to working with Colin and Brian whose collectiveexperience and knowledge I'm sure will be of enormous benefit." - Ends - For further information, contact: Interregnum plc 020 7494 3080Niall Doran (Chief Executive) Madano Partnership (PR to Interregnum) 020 7593 4000Toby Wilkinson This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange