{"id":13624,"date":"2012-08-18T02:55:47","date_gmt":"2012-08-18T00:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/historic-lonmin-faces-perfect-storm-after-killings\/"},"modified":"2012-08-18T02:55:47","modified_gmt":"2012-08-18T00:55:47","slug":"historic-lonmin-faces-perfect-storm-after-killings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/historic-lonmin-faces-perfect-storm-after-killings\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Lonmin faces "perfect storm" after killings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Clara Ferreira-Marques<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON<\/span> Aug 17 (Reuters) – “You can never have enough
\nenemies,” Tiny Rowland once boasted, but even the buccaneering
\ntycoon who built what is now Lonmin plc might blench before the
\n“perfect storm” it faces after South African police killed 34
\nstrikers at its Marikana platinum mine.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Never a stranger to controversy – in its days as Lonrho, a
\nBritish conservative prime minister of the 1970s famously called
\nits then head the “unacceptable face of capitalism” – Lonmin can
\nadd human misery and a public relations nightmare to the labour
\nstruggles and falling demand afflicting all platinum producers.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The company already has one of the most pressured balance
\nsheets in the sector and if production remains stalled after the
\nbloodshed its hopes of limiting a shortfall in its 2012 output
\ntarget and meeting debt-to-earnings commitments may dim further.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Do yesterday’s events change the picture for Lonmin? I do
\nthink yes, they do. What we would like to see is obviously the
\nspeedy resolution of this conflict and the striking rock drill
\noperators return to work as quickly as possible,” said Panmure
\nanalyst Alison Turner as investors stayed bearish on the stock.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I think the kind of violence that you saw yesterday makes
\nthat increasingly difficult.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Adding to Lonmin’s woes, it announced on Thursday that well
\nregarded chief executive Ian Farmer, a veteran of the group
\nsince well before the board ousted the late and controversial
\nRowland in 1994, was seriously ill in hospital.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I just couldn’t think of any more bad things that could
\nhappen to them,” said a second industry analyst who spoke on
\ncondition of anonymity. “It’s the perfect storm.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Lonmin shares dropped over eight percent to their
\nlowest in London since 2008 on Friday, before recovering to
\nclose down 1.3 percent at 619.4 pence near the close.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Clara Ferreira-Marques LONDON Aug 17 (Reuters) – “You can never have enough enemies,” Tiny Rowland once boasted, but even the buccaneering tycoon who built what is now Lonmin plc might blench before the “perfect storm” it faces after South African police killed 34 strikers at its Marikana platinum mine. Never a stranger to controversy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}