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Billiton's chief pilot loses sleep to secure dreamsTHIS week Mick Davis and Brian Gilbertson met in Gencor's offices near Trafalgar Square to convene the inaugural board meeting of Billiton, the first major house to be listed in London since Minorco was floated off from Anglo American more than a decade ago. Billiton, which comprises all the non-precious metals assets of SA mining group Gencor is valued at about £5-billion, is on course to raise between $1-billion and $1.5-billion of new money, more fresh capital than has ever been raised by a mining company anywhere in the world. If its successful - and the omens look good - Billiton will form the first alternative base metals investment to RTZ in London in living memory. The demerger and London listing is the brainchild of Gilbertson, Gencor's chairman, and Davis, who is officially the Billiton finance director but who is moving his family to London to enable him to spearhead the company's expansion. Davis, currently in shock at the prices of houses in Hampstead, earned his reputation as one of the brightest brains in South Africa when he helped drive through the financial transformation of Eskom, the national electricity company. His fans, who include former finance minister and former chairman of Gencor Derek Keys, confidently expect him to make his mark internationally.
Large and bearded Davis has the looks of a rabbi, but he talks like a man of the world. "We want Billiton to be in the top rank of international mining companies and to grow our shareholders' value from that." The youngest of three brothers, Davis was born and brought up in Port Elizabeth It was a traditional Jewish upbringing and he was sent to the Theodor Herzl school. At Rhodes University in Grahamstown he chose to major in accountancy and after joining accountants Peat Marwick in Johannesburg he stepped onto the fast track, becoming a manager when he was still an articled clerk. It was unheard of at the time. He handled clients such as Barclays and big SA manu-facturing companies but left in 1986 when the firm refused to make him a partner at 28. Luckily for him, Eskom was embarking upon a period of radical change and needed some fresh blood. Chief executive John Maree recruited a new financial director and app-roached Davis to work with him as chief internal auditor. His greatest test was to raise new money in the international markets. "It was the steepest leaning curve ever. I knew virtually nothing about international finance. I had been abroad only once." It says much about his skill and tenacity that he succeeded at the height of hostility to South Africa. "I remember going to see a French bank and the executive kept me in the banking hall. He would not even invite me into his office."
After receiving much of the credit for putting Eskom to rights, he dared to hope for the top job. So when Alan Morgan was appointed chief executive he decided to leave and the news reached Gilbertson, who pounced. Gilbertson made him chairman of the coal division as well as giving him the finance job. "Mick has played a very important role," says Gilbertson. "He understands problems and he has very cool judgement." Davis has described himself as a "strategic workaholic" - a phrase I have trouble understanding. "I mean that I think a lot about how corporations need to position themselves to capture value. And I tend to do that at three in the morning." A need to write down a thought in the small hours has been known to irritate his wife Barbara, a hard-working lawyer, who will probably have to give up practising when the family moves to London. They have two daughters, Sarah and Ronit, which means "joy" in Hebrew. But there will be compensations to living in London as they are both art lovers and keen opera-goers.
Despite working long hours, Davis attends a weekly study class of the Talmud to keep in touch with his roots. "It is an intellectual discipline. Working through the Talmud demon-strates the immense intellect of the people who wrote it," but he does not regard himself as relig-ious. "It is more about tradition and emotion," he says.
He is an interesting mixture of spiritual thoughtfulness and naked materialism. When I ask what he wants out of life there is little hesitation. "Wealth, power and happiness," he says. Such honesty is rare. - © The Telegraph Top of page
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