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Detour Gold names Paulson-backed Bill Williams as interim CEO

January 03, 2019 at 09:49 am EST

(Reuters) - Detour Gold said on Thursday it has picked Paulson & Co-backed nominee Bill Williams to be its interim chief executive officer, replacing Michael Kenyon.

The Canadian gold miner was previously involved in a months-long proxy fight with billionaire John Paulson's hedge fund, which pushed for a complete overhaul of the board and Kenyon's resignation.

Williams is a mining industry veteran and was a former CEO of gold and copper miner Orvana Minerals Corp.

He was one of five members elected to the Detour Gold board at a special shareholders meeting held on Dec. 13. These nominees were backed by Paulson, which alleged that under the leadership of Kenyon the company had "unsuccessfully tried to boost short-term performance".

Shares of the company were up 1.5 percent at C$11.93 in early trade.

(Reporting by Shanti S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

Stocks mentioned in the article

Add to a list Add to a list 0 selected To use this feature you must be a member Log in Sign up	Price	Change	5d. change	Capi.
GOLD	2,392 USD	+0.50%	+0.63%	-
DEERE & COMPANY	400.3 USD	-0.07%	+0.77%	112B
LME COPPER CASH	5,730	-0.27%	-0.12%	-
ORVANA MINERALS CORP.	0.2 CAD	0.00%	-24.53%	19.87M
LINE CORPORATION	5,350 JPY	-.--%	-0.19%	12.52B

John Paulson

John Paulson is the boss of the investment fund Paulson & Co. founded in 1995. It’s thanks to subprime crisis that he is become famous. Ranked from Trader monthly magazine best trader of the world in 2008, he became a safe value for investment advice. With a fortune amounted to $ 16 billion in 2011, he was ranked as 36th richest people in the world. Today, with $ 36 billion in assets under management, his fund is the third largest global hedge fund.

John Paulson was recognized for his ability to anticipate the market movements. Graduated from Harvard and with an experience in Bear Sterns Investment Bank, he speculated on the housing bubble’s burst and subprime mortgages’ collapse. He created four hedge fund with only one goal: to cover the default risk of these mortgages. One of these funds, the Credit Opportunities opened in early 2007 with $ 130 million, in 12 months was valued at $ 3,2 billion.

John Paulson funds’ assets are valuated at $ 29 billion. His flagship fund, the Paulson Credit, posted a performance of 590% in 2007. Also in 2007, one of his funds invested in agriculture commodities has collected earnings for $ 3,7 billion, another record for the investor who was called by the media “The Sultan subprime”.

John Paulson has hired Alan Greenspan, old Fed’s Chairman.

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