Dale McNamara is currently Executive Director – Global Mining and likely (he is targetted to be) the CEO of the soon to be spun out of the group, PPK Mining.

McNamara is running as a candidate in the seat of Hunter for the House of Reps and has aligned himself with One Nation on the back of ON being "the only party left supporting coal".

Hunter is listed as a key seat, although it has been held by Labor since 1972. Last election ON received 3-something percent of the vote. It's likely McNamara will be sitting in the CEO seat in July (the targetted spin out date for PPK Mining), rather than making taxpayer backed trips to the nation's capital.

Incorrectly in my mind, PPK has always been a mining services company with their CoalTram and other underground diesel vehicles, and equipment. I was surprised to learn that the board has been seeking to dispose of the mining equipment (PPKME) division as it “would be in the best interests of shareholders and PPKME’s employees.”

PPK will then be solely a company focused on the technology incubation and commercialisation of primarily university-based projects such as the patented Boron Nitride Nanotubes that from Deakin Uni.

It appears there were negotiations with several parties, a sale was not concluded, so PPKME is to be spun out as a separate unlisted public company and PPK will not retain any shareholding. Finexia Securities is to be engaged to operate an off market buy/sell facility to ensure liquidity and conclude the process before the end of the financial year

It is unlikely PPKME will be as lucrative as the Li-S Energy spin out (initially was) late last year. PPK regains a touch over 50% holding. 

Other projects on the books include:

White Graphene – not yet out of commercialisation/ in to corporatisation stage, although a collaboration agreement has been signed with Sun Metals in Korea to develop industrial coatings. This is a ~63% holding.

Advanced Mobility Analytics – an AI road safety platform which has seen sales in 3x north American cities as well as locally in Sydney. This is a ~24% ownership.

Craig International Ballistics – a body armour division that provides equipment to both law enforcement and defence. PPK as a 45% stake.

Survivon – an antiviral company where PPK has ~47% stake.

Late last year in a shareholder update the chair indicated they believe 2022 will be the most value creating year in history. The market sure does not believe that to be the case if the share price is anything of a measure.

Some of the businesses are interesting individually, but collectively they are a mismatch. For this reason, it does not make sense to carve out PPKME, possibly other than it cannot be polished into something shiny.

I will watch with passing interest from the sidelines to see if they can get any more of these businesses commercialised.