RE:RE:RE:Rick Rule Interviews Sandeep Singh Shares in Osisko immediately lost 10 per cent of their value amid the uncertainty and a vacuum of information.
AGNIESZKA STALKOPER
Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. OR-T chief executive officer Sandeep Singh was fired after clashing with the board of the mining and streaming royalty company he helped turn around. (this was a persinality clash with Sean Roosen. I have spoken with some people at Osisko who admired Sandeep, but the persinality clash with Mr. Roosen was deep. Roosen founded the company which made some people feel uncomfortable).
Montreal-based Osisko announced on Wednesday that Mr. Singh, who had only been in the role since 2020, had left the company, effective immediately.
The company gave little explanation for his exit, other than saying that the independent directors concluded that change was necessary “to best position Osisko for continued long-term success.”
Shares in the company immediately lost 10 per cent of their value amid the uncertainty and a vacuum of information.
Osisko was founded in 2014 by veteran mining executive Sean Roosen. Mr. Singh, a long-time investment banker, was named CEO in 2020.
In an interview, Mr. Singh said that he was terminated after butting heads with the board.
“There was a clash there. I mean they fired me, so clearly there’s something there that wasn’t working,” he said.
Osisko declined to comment for this story.
While Mr. Singh admits there were problems with the board, he strongly defended his record as CEO, and insisted he was not fired for cause.
“Despite the abrupt tone and nature of the release, I was terminated without cause, and I am extremely proud of the work I did there, and of the team I led for the past three and a half years.” he said.
Under Mr. Singh’s leadership, Osisko, which had previously underperformed its peers, started to outperform. This year, the company’s share price performance has handily beaten even Franco-Nevada Corp., the long-standing king of the royalty sector.
Mr. Singh said that when he started at Osisko,
“very few people, if anyone on the Street, had anything positive to say about the company.” Osisko has since come 180 degrees, he said. “It was an immense amount of work to rebuild the trust of the market, and that’s my legacy.”
Mr. Singh’s termination coincided with a weakening power of the company’s founder and visionary, Mr. Roosen, who is moving from executive chairman to chairman. That role will see him take a less hands-on role in the day-to-day running of the company, and step into a position that traditionally carries far less compensation.
Osisko’s lead independent director, Joanne Ferstman, said in a release this week that the change in duties for Mr. Roosen was part of the company’s commitment to improved governance.
The change also comes after Mr. Roosen received a lukewarm reception at Osisko’s annual general meeting, garnering only 77.9-per-cent approval from shareholders, the weakest of any board member. Mr. Singh, by comparison, received 99.6-per-cent approval.
Mr. Roosen is best-known for his role in founding, developing and selling the massive Malartic mine in Quebec, one of Canada’s biggest gold mines. Osisko’s royalty on Malartic is still one of its most important assets.
Historically, Osisko’s business model deviated from its competitors because, in addition to purchasing royalties and streams, it took direct stakes in junior miners, a strategy that hasn’t always worked. Under Mr. Singh’s leadership, the company has concentrated increasingly on becoming a pure-play royalty company.
While Mr. Singh admits he expected a strong effort from his team when he was CEO, he bats away any notion that he was a bad boss.
“I worked people hard, but I worked myself even harder,” he said. “I consider those people my friends, and I hope, and I think that they would say the same.”
Before joining Osisko, Mr. Singh had a 15-year career as a mining banker with BMO Nesbitt Burns, Dundee Securities and Maxit Capital.
(Should be noted that Dundee is Eight Capital)
Osisko named Paul Martin, former CEO of Detour Gold Corp., as interim chief executive as it commences a search for a permanent replacement for Mr. Singh.