Barend Petersen
Photo by: Duane Daws
Barend Petersen has been appointed nonexecutive director and chairperson of Evraz Highveld Steel & Vanadium.
This comes after London-listed Evraz last week announced that it would sell a 34% stake in the steel producer to South Africa-based investor Macrovest, which is led by Petersen, for R289-million.
Petersen succeeded Bheki Shongwe, who resigned as independent nonexecutive director and chairperson with effect from August 19.
“[This] is a once-thriving business, which has been in great difficulty in recent times. I believe there is an opportunity to turn Highveld around but that is going to require significant efforts from all stakeholders.
I am cautiously confident that it is possible to turn the business around in at least two years,” Petersen commented on Wednesday.
Petersen holds a B Compt (Hons) degree and is a qualified chartered accountant.
He is the executive chairperson of De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM), a director of De Beers Group and a shareholder in Ponahalo Capital, which owns a 50% stake in Ponahalo Investments, a DBCM partner.
Petersen is also director of several other companies including Anglo American South Africa, Alexander Forbes Equity Holdings and Curro Holdings. Further, he is chairperson of Sizwe Business Recoveries, which he founded in 1998.
Meanwhile, Evraz Highveld has also appointed Izak Johannes Burger and Andrew Phillip Maralack as nonexecutive directors.