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Big Hitter With A Mild Manner

Steady, sensible and conciliatory are the words used to describe Jan du Plessis, the mild-mannered South African named on Tuesday as chairman of Rio Tinto.
In spite of maintaining a relatively low profile, the 55-year-old has, by virtue of his position as chairman of British American Tobacco and two other high-profile board appointments, emerged as a powerful figure in the City in recent years.
A trained accountant, Mr du Plessis, has spent most of his career in the web of companies affiliated with South Africa’s Rupert family.

His first job was international finance manager at Rembrandt, whose interests stretched from discount cigarettes and luxury goods to mining, and he played a key role in demerging the conglomerate’s non-South African assets and listing them in Switzerland as Richemont in 1998.

From there, he spent the next six years as Richemont’s finance director, putting him in regular contact with City institutional investors.

Mr du Plessis, a non-smoker, joined BAT as a non-executive director in 1999 after Richemont sold its controlling stake in Rothmans International to the UK tobacco group in return for a large minority stake – which was spun off last year.

But it was his ascension to the BAT chairmanship in 2004 that cemented his status as a City heavyweight.

Mr du Plessis is also a non-executive director at Marks and Spencer and chairman of the audit committee at Lloyds Banking. He has indicated that he intends to stand down from his roles at BAT and Lloyds.

Those who know Mr du Plessis say he is “low key” and “financially conservative” – someone who favours a strong balance sheet rather than the enormous debts taken on by Rio after buying Alcan. Well thought of in the City, though an unknown quantity to some mining analysts spoken to by the FT, he will be presented as a safe pair of hands at a time when Rio needs just that.

“He’s a very good guy to have on your team,” says one long-standing tobacco industry analyst.

As BAT chairman, Mr du Plessis is credited for adopting a more conciliatory approach to the company’s detractors, namely anti-tobacco campaigners. At his first annual meeting, he offered the group’s fiercest critics an open door to enter into dialogue – a departure from BAT’s more abrasive, confrontational past.

Rio will hope Mr du Plessis’s presence can help repair relations with investors, who remain deeply unhappy over the terms of its $19.5bn (£13.9bn) fundraising deal with Chinalco. Given that Rio is determined to push through the Chinese deal, his peace-making credentials are about to be fully tested.

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