DAVIES

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Just Share www.justshare.org.za

TRACEY Davies’ Just Share has become a thorn in the side of corporate South Africa. The non-profit shareholder activist group, since its founding in 2017, has been a vigorous watchdog, exposing lobbying and greenwashing that work against climate action. Speaking at the ESG Africa Conference in October, Davies said South African corporate boards viewed environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles as an external threat from “irritating activists and pesky investors”. The rationale behind Just Share was exactly that: to hold corporate South Africa to account for the negative impacts on the environment and society. In the past year, Just Share attended numerous annual general meetings where it posed questions related to income and gender inequality, diversity and transformation, climate change and related governance issues to boards. It took coal companies Exxaro and Thungela Resources to task for the climate risks their operations pose to the country. Thungela especially came under fire for a toxic spill in Mpumalanga province and, together with Exxaro and Seriti, has been hauled over the coals for not having credible decarbonisation plans for its emissions. Sasol was also criticised for its “vague and distant” commitments to emission reductions, having deferred its decarbonisation efforts to 2026. South Africa’s Standard Bank got flack over its funding of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline into Uganda, while Absa came under scrutiny for not explicitly ruling out the financing of new coal projects. There are many well-versed, cogent voices for society keeping miners as honest as possible. We choose Davies as their standard bearer in this edition of Rainmakers & Potstirrers.

Life Of Tracey

Davies has a BA LLB from the University of Cape Town and an LLM from New York University. She is admitted as an attorney in South Africa and a solicitor in Britain and Wales. She serves on the advisory board for the National Business Initiative’s Just Transition Pathways project, and the Global Reporting Initiative’s Human Rights Technical Committee. Davies is internationally recognised as an expert in the field of responsible investment, shareholder activism, and corporate governance. She was the founder of the non-profit shareholder activist group Just Share.

VISION Blue Resources (VBR) is the latest of a number of ventures Mick Davis launched since falling out with former Glencore boss Ivan Glasenberg during the merger of that company with Xstrata. Davis first tried his hand with a private equity fund called X2 Resources that looked to capitalise on China’s commodities boom, looking for the chance to buy projects cheaply in a debt-burdened mining sector. He raised $500m in 2016 for the fund but it closed in 2017 without making a single investment, with Davis citing a lack of decent opportunities. Then he went after iron ore through Niron Metal, which he cofounded in 2019 looking to develop the Zogota iron prospect in Guinea. That did not work either and Davis cut his ties with Niron in 2021. So far he seems to be doing a lot better with VBR, where he has at least found a number of ventures to invest money in. The vision of VBR is to “create a portfolio of strategic and high-returning investments in clean energy-related metal and mineral resources companies essential to the clean energy transition”. The first deal –after raising $60m – happened in February 2021 with the investment of $29.5m in Next Source Materials, which is developing the Molo flake graphite project in Madagascar. Graphite is a key mineral for the production of batteries. That was followed in March with the creation of the ESM Acquisition Corporation in partnership with the Energy and Minerals Group, which raised $300m. The strategy is to focus on businesses positioned to benefit from the global transition to a low-carbon economy. Three other investments have taken place since then, with VBR putting funds into Ferro-Alloy Resources (vanadium), Sinova Global (silicon), and Cornish Metals (tin).

Life Of Mick

Sir Mick – he was knighted in 2015 for services to Holocaust commemoration and education – is a CA by profession and holds a BCom Honours from Rhodes University. He remains one of South Africa’s best-known businessmen after teaming up with Brian Gilbertson after leaving Eskom, where he was the CFO. The two created Billiton with Davis as CFO and he was heavily involved in the merger of BHP and Billiton before becoming CEO of Xstrata. Davis has raised more than $40bn from global capital markets during his career and successfully completed more than $120bn of corporate transactions. He is chair of Next Resources.