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HudBay Chairman Will Resign as Miner Reaches Pact With Waterton

HudBay Chairman Will Resign as Miner Reaches Pact With Waterton

(Bloomberg) -- HudBay Minerals Inc. reached an agreement with one of its largest shareholders that would see three of the investor’s nominees elected to the board and the company’s chairman, Alan Hibben, resign once a replacement is found.

Under the terms of the agreement with Waterton Global Resource Management, Peter Kukielski, David Smith and Daniel Muñiz Quintanilla will join the 11-member board, the Canadian miner said in a statement Friday.

HudBay Chairman Will Resign as Miner Reaches Pact With Waterton

“Hudbay is pleased to have reached an agreement with Waterton that is in the best interests of shareholders,” Hibben said in the statement. “We look forward to welcoming our new directors to the board and thank our departing directors for their valuable service to the company.”

The parties said they would commence a search for a new chairman and than Hibben will remain on the board until its 2020 shareholder meeting.

Waterton, which owns a 12.5 percent stake in Toronto-based Hudbay, had been pushing for changes since October. It had accused the company of being mismanaged and in need of new leadership, and had originally sought to replace the company’s chairman and its Chief Executive Officer Alan Hair before paring back its demands. The private equity firm had sought four seats on the board ahead its annual general meeting slated for May 7.

Hair will be reelected to the board under the terms of the agreement, the parties said.

The private equity firm’s push won the partial support of two prominent shareholder advisory firms. Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. recommended Monday shareholders elect two of its nominees, including David Smith, whose candidacy has also been endorsed by the company. Glass Lewis & Co. urged investors to elect three of its nominees.

To contact the reporters on this story: Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net;Matthew Monks in New York at mmonks1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Thorpe

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