Leading Independent Proxy Adviser ISS Recommends Maudore Shareholders Support Management Board Nominees
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwire) -- 07/09/12 -- Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a leading independent proxy advisory firm, has recommended that shareholders of Maudore Minerals Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: MAO)(OTCBB: MAOMF)(FRANKFURT: M6L) vote in favour of the management slate of board nominees at the upcoming annual meeting.
Rejecting the slate nominated by a dissident group of shareholders, ISS notes that "the dissidents have not made a compelling case that a change to the board is necessary at this time".
The report endorses the stewardship provided by the current board and management, pointing out that Maudore's enterprise value has grown significantly over the past eight years under the tenure of the current chief executive, Ronald Shorr.
"Given the premise that the company's outstanding shares will not be subject to significant dilution and the company also has a favourable cash position and prudent leverage structure... it would be in shareholders' best interest to experience fast-growing enterprise value as it creates more value return for shareholders on a per share basis."
ISS also rejects the dissident group's demand to replace the entire board when it owns only 18.4% of the equity: "Given that the company's performance is generally healthy over the longer term, it does not appear to be legitimate to remove the whole board...."
ISS concludes that "as a TSX Venture issuer, the company has an adequate governance structure, and there is no significant noted problematic governance practice. As such, vote FOR management nominees (is) warranted".
ISS looked carefully at the quality of nominees, their respective technical talents, the so-called "100 Day Action Plan," performance on key industry measures, and the expertise of current management, plus Maudore's many attempts to offer the dissidents a more than proportionate representation, and concluded that keeping the Maudore team is in shareholders' interest. Thus a BLUE proxy vote for Maudore management is the best idea for all concerned.
Welcoming ISS's findings, Mr. Shorr said: "We are delighted to have ISS' support and are confident that our shareholders will support the existing board. We believe that Maudore has a bright future as we continue our active drilling and exploration program, and move towards a production decision". He also noted that Maudore's team has two mining engineers, the people trained to actually put a mine into production while the dissidents technical people only include geologists who are involved in the discovery, not the pre-production stage.
Maudore shareholders will elect directors for the coming year at the annual meeting, to be held on July 19, 2012.
For more information and assistance in voting their BLUE proxy in favour of the management nominees, shareholders should contact Kingsdale Shareholder Services Inc. at 1-866-230-2635 or by email at contactus@kingsdaleshareholder.com. The proxy cut-off time is 10am (Toronto time) on July 17, 2012.
About Maudore Minerals Ltd.
Maudore owns 100% of the Comtois gold project in Quebec, as well as a large land area west of Comtois with volcanogenic gold/massive sulphide (VMS) potential. VMS gold deposits are more common in Quebec than anywhere else in the world. Maudore has a total land package of 94,000 hectares (235,000 acres or 367 sq. miles).
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed this release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
Media Inquiries:
Maudore Minerals Ltd.
Ronald Shorr
Chief Executive Officer
514 761 1415
info@maudore.com
