Goodman eases Corona load

Planning to focus more closely on his new investment firm, Dundee Capital, Corona Chairman Ned Goodman has reduced his involvement in Corona (TSE), leaving more room for Peter Steen, Corona’s president and chief executive officer, to manage the gold producer. “In order to fully concentrate my efforts on the investment counselling and merchant banking activities of Dundee, I have resigned most of my outside corporate directorships and have substantially retired from my activities at Corona in conjunction with that company’s relocation to Vancouver,” Goodman said in a press release.

“It means Peter Steen is running the show,” said Steven Kelman, vice-president of corporate and public relations for Dundee. He stressed that the release was meant to clarify Goodman’s role in Corona’s day-to-day activities, which has been negligible for some time, not to imply a major shift in Corona’s management. Goodman remains chairman of Corona.

“The whole purpose of the release was to let the people who are selling the Dynamic Fund know what Ned is doing, said Kelman. “People perceive of him as running the show (at Corona) which he is not.”

Goodman created Dundee last June, after severing ties with his old firm, Beutal, Goodman and Co., and taking the mutual fund assets of Dynamic Fund management with him. He is currently in the process of appointing a string of fund managers and securities analysts for the new company. Corona, together with Goodman’s family holding company Jodamada, controls 38% of Dundee, making it the firm’s largest shareholder.

Corona Gold, Corona’s new gold subsidiary, has established its corporate offices in Vancouver as scheduled. Peter Steen is appointed president of the gold mining company. The remainder of Corona’s diverse assets including base metals, industrial minerals, oil and gas, diamonds, merchant banking and money-management will continue to be controlled by Corona.

Corona has been haunted in the past by what some analysts have coined “the Ned Factor” — the influence that Ned Goodman appears to have on the share value of companies with which he becomes involved. For the first two days of trading following Goodman’s announcement, Corona A shares were the volume leaders among mining stocks on the Toronto exchange, falling 63 cents to $6.13.