Paladin Energy Hires New CFO, Downgraded

Posted by webmaster in Paladin, Uranium News, Uranium Stocks, downgrades on 11 4th, 2009 | no responses

Australian Uranium producer Paladin Energy has been in the headlines this week, hiring a new CFO and receiving a downgrade from RBS.

In a press release sent out on November 2nd, Paladin announced the appointment of Garry Korte as CFO. He will begin his new role on November 16th. From the press release:

Garry brings a broad range of finance skills to the Company and we believe his corporate finance, commercial and international experience will add value as Paladin continues to grow.

Earnings Downgrade

Despite the timing, the downgrade of Paladin was unrelated to the hiring of Garry Korte . RBS analyst Lyndon Fagan lowered his earnings forecast by 46%, all the way down to $14.4 million in American currency. The reasoning behind this was his expectation of Paladin not being able to meet production forecasts. He bases his assumption on historical misses and lowered investor confidence. From Fagan:

‘Missing targets over the last two years has resulted in negative sentiment, and a general lack of investor confidence in delivery of future production. In our view, this is the reason the stock is now trading below our fair value.’’