Disgruntled shareholders told decision to axe Deep Yellow boss was ‘not made lightly’ at heated AGM

Deep Yellow has defended the sudden exit of its 80-year-old chief executive John Borshoff, suggesting it had needed someone with “the runway” to get the $1.6 billion company into uranium production. Shareholders used a packed annual general meeting of Deep Yellow in Perth on Thursday to vent over Mr Borshoff’s departure, which wiped nearly 20 per cent from its market value when the news dropped on investors on October 20. The exit has prompted major shareholders Paradice Investment Management, Soul Patts and MacMillan Super Fund, to join together to pressure Deep Yellow into bringing Mr Borshoff back. They are threatening to call an extraordinary general meeting to spill the board unless the Deep Yellow agrees to his return. While media was banned from the AGM by Deep Yellow chair Chris Salisbury, attendees told The West Australian that shareholders — some of whom said they invested in the company because of Mr Borshoff — demanded directors explain their reasoning behind his departure. Mr Salisbury, the attendees said, told the meeting while it was “not made lightly”, the decision came to needing someone with the “runway” to see Deep Yellow’s $720 million flagship project in Namibia, Tumas, and WA’s Mulga Rock project into development. He said Deep Yellow had wanted to hold back an announcement on Mr Borshoff’s exit until a replacement had been finalised, but it was forced to move early when news of the impending departure found its way into the market. Despite its support for the former chief executive, shareholders at the AGM voted down a plan to reward him nearly $1 million of performance-based shares funded by a company loan. However, the resolution was rejected by nearly 85 per cent of voting shareholders on the advice of proxy advisers, who said the award of the 842,476 loan shares didn’t align with best practice corporate governance. Institutional Shareholder Services, one of the proxy advisers to recommend its clients vote against the award, said the resolution included both the deferred portion of Mr Mr Borshoff’s short-term bonus for the 2025 financial year and his long-term incentive award for 2026. “Full retention of an award upon cessation of employment is considered problematic and materially inconsistent with local market standards in which unvested awards are forfeited or at least subject to pro rata vesting based on performance and time served,” ISS said. “In situations in which a CEO departs prior to the AGM, typical market practice is for LTI grant resolutions to be withdrawn or adjusted for time served.” Deep Yellow director and former EY partner Greg Meyerowitz also narrowly avoided getting dumped at the AGM, after 41 per cent of shareholders voted against his re-election. Announcing Mr Borshoff’s resignation last month, Deep Yellow said he had been “influential in shaping the broader uranium industry” and would remain an adviser to the company until the end of November. With seemingly no clear successor lined up, chief financial officer Craig Barnes is running Deep Yellow as interim CEO, aided by Mr Salisbury, who has temporarily stepped up into an executive chair role. A final investment decision on Tumas was deferred in April this year. Mulga Rock, in the Goldfields, is WA’s only uranium project with State Ministerial approval. Deep Yellow shares rose 6.6 per cent to close at $1.705.