Ncondezi Energy appoints Christiaan Schutte as chief operating officer

Ncondezi Energy announced the appointment of Christiaan Schutte as the company's interim chief operating officer on Tuesday, as well as the appointment of Pimlico Advisory to provide investor relations services to the company.

The AIM-traded firm said Schutte's main responsibility would be to lead the technical process on the integrated Ncondezi 300MW coal-fired power project and coal mine in Tete, Mozambique.

It said that included management of the engineering procurement and construction, and operations and management processes with the company’s strategic partners, which was due to be completed at the end of the fourth quarter.

The board said it was a non-board position, with Schutte not being appointed as a director of the company.

It said Chris Schutte had “considerable knowledge” of the business, having been a non-executive director of Ncondezi from February 2013.

During 2013 and 2014, he led the firm’s power plant engineering, procurement and construction and operations and management processes.

He was appointed chief operating officer of Ncondezi in March 2015, and took over the day-to-day project development in May 2015 when chief executive officer Paul Venter stood down.

Schutte resigned as COO and from the board in September 2018, when he was invited by Eskom Holdings SOC - the largest power generator in sub-Saharan Africa - to join its generation group to support the daily production and scheduling of Eskom's power generation fleet.

He supported Eskom's generation executive team on technical and production issues, and was said to have been a “key member” of the team that put together Eskom's generation recovery plan.

Schutte interacted with the government-appointed ministerial task team in analysing current generation challenges, before leaving Eskom to pursue private consulting opportunities at the end of May this year.

Prior to joining Ncondezi in 2013, Schutte was a senior general manager in the technology group, responsible for all engineering functions at Eskom, including design accountability for new power stations, transmission lines and distribution development.

Before that, he was senior general manager of Eskom's generation division, managing five coal-fired power stations with more than 18,000 MW total installed capacity - 60 times the size of the Ncondezi Project.

He holds a degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in business leadership.

“Chris's appointment as COO comes at an important time as the company seeks to reinforce its in house technical expertise and ramp up its project development programme with its strategic partners,” said chief executive officer Hanno Pengilly.

“Chris is uniquely positioned to drive key technical processes with his in-depth knowledge of the project and experience operating some of the largest coal fired power plants on the continent.

“Chris' recent work at Eskom underlines the high regard in which his power generation expertise is held by Africa's largest power utility.”

Pengilly said it was a “critical appointment” to achieve the best results from the engineering, procurement and construction and operations and management bid process, allowing for the delivery of a competitive tariff to EDM.

In addition, the board said it had appointed Pimlico Advisory to strengthen its investor relations platform.

It described Pimlico Advisory as a bespoke investor relations and corporate development consultancy, founded by Elizabeth Johnson in September 2018.

Elizabeth had more than 12 years of capital markets experience, advising both private and publicly-listed companies.

She had “considerable knowledge” of the company, the board claimed, having acted for Ncondezi when she was a corporate broking director at FinnCap.

Prior to founding Pimlico Advisory, she was a director at SP Angel.

“We are also pleased to announce the appointment of Pimlico Advisory to assist with our investor relations ahead of what will be a very active 12 months for the company as we continue to unlock the value of our project,” Hanno Pengilly added.