Investors dump Talvivarra after CEO resigns

Andrew Topf | October 7, 2011 | 8:07 pm Base Metals Europe Nickel

Talvivarra Mining (LON:TALV) got massacred on the markets today on news that its CEO, Pekka Perä, has resigned.

The London-listed Finnish base metal miner shed 55.83 pence to close at 198.66p — a 21.67% drop.

It is clear that investors saw the departure of Perä — the driving force behind the company and its largest shareholder, owning 23% of the stock — as a major negative, says an analyst quoted in The Daily Telegraph:

“We imagine it would be a major personal disappointment for Mr Perä not to see through the company’s transformation from a developer into a highly profitable large scale nickel producer,” said Collins Stewart analyst John Mcgloin.

The departure of its CEO coincides with Talvivaara recently lowering its full-year production guidance to 16,000 tonnes from production figures released in August, which were between 22,000 and 28,000 tonnes.

The company is primarily a nickel and zinc producer. It owns two polymetallic deposits in eastern Finland.