Directors:
Christopher Heal Bennett, BA (Hons), FRICS - Chairman
Date of Birth: 15th March 1945
Chris left the College of Estate Management, University of London in 1966 and joined the Inland Revenue District Valuer and Valuation Office. He subsequently joined Montagu Evans before joining Richard Ellis in 1972 where he spent 17 years as a partner in charge of the Industrial Property business, leaving the partnership in 1988.
After a brief spell as a developer of commercial property in the London area, Chris joined Price Waterhouse in Budapest as the head of the Real Estate Group in Central & Eastern Europe with offices in Berlin, Warsaw, Prague and Moscow. In 1994, Chris joined DTZ as Chairman of their Central & Eastern Europe operations, covering Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, Bucharest, Moscow, St Petersburg and Kiev before leaving in April 2005 to join the Stumpf group. Chris is currently managing director of Stumpf CEE kft, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Austrian Stumpf group (a privately owned Austrian development and investment company). In his current role with Stumpf his objective is to invest in commercial real estate outside Austria.
Chris has extensive experience of all aspects of real estate throughout the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe.
Brett Lance Miller, BA, LL.B. - Director
Date of Birth: 24th December 1967
Brett graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) with a Bachelors degree majoring in Law and Economics and additionally holds a Law degree from the London School of Economics (after having relocated to the United Kingdom in 1988). He joined Nabarro Nathanson, a London-based law firm, in September 1993 where he did his articles and practiced until December 1997.
Brett has specialised in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance in the energy and natural resources and smaller companies sectors. He was previously managing director and a key shareholder in Ruegg & Co Limited, a London based corporate finance boutique, prior to its sale to Astaire Group plc in July 2009. He has experience in raising equity capital for smaller companies, having been the driving force behind numerous small company flotations in a variety of sectors. Brett also has experience in corporate finance, corporate governance issues, corporate restructurings and optimising financial capital structures.
Stephen Dillon Gray - Director
Date of Birth: 23rd July 1969
Steve has seventeen years’ experience in UK and offshore corporate and trustee administration, including five years with Equiom Trust Company Limited (formerly Ernst & Young Trust Company Limited).
Barry Curtis Smith, B Com, LLB, TEP - Director
Date of Birth: 23rd September 1953Barry is the Legal Counsel for Equiom Trust Company Limited and has 26 years’ experience in the legal profession as an Attorney, Notary Public and conveyancer (South Africa), Solicitor (England) and Advocate (Isle of Man).
Katherine Sarah Ellis, ACCA - Director
Date of Birth: 15th September 1978Katherine qualified as a Chartered Certified Accountant in 2002 and has eight years’ experience in the offshore arena with Equiom Trust Company Limited (formerly Ernst & Young Trust Company Limited).
Sarah Joanne Ingrassia, TEP - Director
Date of Birth: 13th May 1970Sarah is a Member of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners and has over 20 years’ experience in the offshore trust & company arena.
Asset Manager:
Mark Sheppard, Midas Investment Management Limited
Date of Birth: 16th February 1971Mark qualified in 1996 as a chartered accountant with Deloitte & Touche in London. He moved to ABN Amro Equities Limited where he became a smaller companies analyst and was part of the Restaurant, Breweries and Pubs team, which was voted the second best team in the 1998 Reuters UK Smaller Company Survey. The following year he moved to the UK Smaller and Mid Cap Institutional sales team that was voted the second best team in the 1999 survey. In 1999, Mark was appointed Chief Executive of Galleon Assets Management Limited, which he sold to Abinger Investments plc in 2001. He was then appointed Chief Executive of Midas Investment Management Limited which he had previously founded. Mark has been involved in the management of a number of investment funds.
Property Advisor:
Nicholas Leigh-Wood, Midas European Property Limited
Date of Birth: 4th April 1971Nicholas graduated in 1994 with an MBA from L’Institut Superieur de Gestion, Paris, France. Nicholas was founder and managing director of Future Internet Technologies Ltd and built up a web design and software business before managing the reverse takeover of AIM listed Griff-Tech.com plc in May 2000, raising £3million in the process. He subsequently managed the merger of the underlying business and assets with Hong Kong based Magically Inc.
Since 2002, while acting as a consultant to a number of businesses including InsideSpace Art & Interior Design Limited and Facade International Limited. Nicholas has also been actively involved in the acquisition, restoration and re-sale of buildings in disrepair for Counterhouse Developments Limited.
Nicholas has had experience of transacting in property in Budapest since 1998 and has focused on the property management of the Group’s Hungarian subsidiary since December 2004. Nicholas is half Hungarian and has extensive contacts in Budapest. His grandfather was instrumental in setting up the Budapest Stock Exchange at the request of the World Bank and his grandfather subsequently held the role of Senior Central European Advisor at Flemings.
Corporate Governance
The directors recognise the importance of sound corporate governance and intend that the Company will comply with the main provisions of the Combined Code insofar as they are appropriate given the Company’s size, the nature of its business and the stage of its development.
The Board is responsible for formulating, reviewing and approving the Group’s strategy, budgets and corporate actions. The directors hold Board meetings quarterly and at other times as and when required.
Pactolus has established an audit committee with formally delegated duties and responsibilities.
The audit committee has primary responsibility for monitoring the quality of internal controls and ensuring the financial performance of the Company is properly measured and reported. It will receive and review reports from the Company’s management and auditors relating to the interim and annual accounts and the accounting and internal control systems in use throughout the Company. The audit committee will meet not less than twice in each financial year and will have access to the Company’s auditors. The members of the audit committee are Brett Miller and Christopher Bennett.
The Company does not consider it necessary to establish remuneration and nomination committees as it has no executive directors.
Pactolus has adopted and operates a share dealing code governing the share dealings of the directors and any applicable employees. Midas Investment Management Ltd, Mark Sheppard, Gall & Eke Ltd and Nicholas Leigh-Wood have also all agreed to abide by the Company’s share dealing code.
The Company takes all reasonable steps to ensure that the directors and any applicable employees comply with all provisions of the AIM Rules relating to the dealing in securities.