NZX Australian agri head quits for grain trader role
NZX's Australian agri-business general manager Pat O'Shannassy has resigned to take up a new role as a grain trader.
BUSINESSDESK: NZX’s Australian agri-business general manager Pat O’Shannassy has resigned to take up a new role as a grain trader.
During Mr O’Shannassy’s tenure since 2010, he worked alongside teams in the stock exchange’s Clear Grain Exchange and Grain Information Unit as NZX targeted Australian agri-trading.
The outgoing NZX executive will take up a role in grain trading, through which he’ll continue to have links to Clear Grain Exchange and GIU.
Under his leadership, the grain exchange trading has grown to about half a million tonnes in the recent harvest, NZX said.
Mr O’Shannassy will be replaced by GIU head Ron Storey.
The grain exchange has been a touchy subject for NZX, with law suits and countersuits laid between former employees Dominic Pym and Grant Thomas, who set up Clear.
NZX is seeking reparation from the exchange founders, claiming they misled the company over its $A6.9 million purchase in 2009 with inaccurate forecasts.
Pym and Thomas are seeking $A41 million in a counterclaim.
The dispute is slowly working its way through the courts and should be heard later this year.
The platform was originally set up to take advantage of the break-up of the Australian Wheat Board monopoly and was hoping to cash in on the $A100 million to $A150 million growers spend annually on commissions to sell their products.
Grain trading was expected to add another suite to NZX’s agricultural products and came in the dawning of its dairy futures trading.
Shares in NZX rose 0.4% to $2.81 in trading today.
Paul McBeth
Wed, 04 Apr 2012
Wed, 04 Apr 2012
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NZX Australian agri head quits for grain trader role
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