Snake eyes: Casino owner Donaco dumps its CEO

Casino owner Donaco International (ASX:DNA) has terminated the employment of its executive director, and former managing director and CEO, Joey Lim.

Mr Lim has been on leave since early December last year, when he requested time off “to deal with health and personal matters”.

But in an announcement on the ASX this morning Donaco said it had terminated the employment of Mr Lim as an executive of the company with immediate effect.

However, he remains on the board as a non-executive director, and his brother Benjamin Lim remains as interim MD and CEO, a role he took on board when Mr Lim stepped aside in December.

“The board is very pleased that Ben Lim has agreed to step up as a senior executive and lead the company through this period of transition,” Donaco chairman Stuart McGregor said at the time.

“We also congratulate Joey Lim on recognising his need to focus on his personal wellbeing and health, and wish him all the best for a speedy recovery.”

Donaco (ASX:DNA) shares rose 2 per cent to 6.7c today.

The company announced a strategic review in mid-December, which tripled its shares. It believed its share price was “in no way reflective of the value of the company’s assets” and so launched a strategic review to “consider various ways to eliminate or restructure the Mega Bank debt, and free up cash flow to conduct capital management initiatives”.

It owed US$40 million to Mega Bank.

The outcome of that review is yet to be made public, but earlier this month Donaco said Vincent Pirina and Mitchell Mansfield had been appointed as joint and several receivers of approximately 224 million shares in the company, shares which formerly belonged to the Lim family.

It said that would not impact the company’s management or operations, with Ben Lim to remain as interim MD and CEO until the end of this month, but did admit it “may have an impact on the company’s loan agreement with Mega Bank”.

“It is possible that Mega Bank may regard this as a ‘change of control’ under the terms of the loan agreement. If so, the loan may become due and payable sooner than the currently scheduled repayment dates. The company will discuss this issue with Mega Bank, and keep the market informed of all developments,” it said.