Rothschild loses Bumi power struggle Financier Nat Rothschild has been defeated in his bid to replace the board of Bumi, the Indonesian mining company he helped to create that has come to symbolise the perils of investing in natural resource stocks with assets in emerging markets. However, after the extraordinary meeting in London on Thursday, the miner announced that Samin Tan, whom Mr Rothschild had sought to oust as chairman, would step down and that a search to replace the Indonesian tycoon was already under way. Shareholders rejected 19 of Mr Rothschild's 22 resolutions, including one that would have seen him return to the board. Accompanied to the meeting by his mother, Lady Serena Rothschild, he claimed some success after a "substantial majority" of independent shareholders voted for his proposals. After the results of the vote, the financier called on Bumi's eight independent non-executive directors to resign, saying they had "demonstrably lost the confidence of the majority of nonaligned shareholders." But his claim was disputed by Nick von Schirnding, Bumi's chief executive, who said the board had received a mandate from the majority of independent shareholders. "I just really want to put these two months of infighting behind us and move on, because our long-suffering shareholders deserve better," he said. Bumi was created in 2010 in a $3bn deal that saw Indonesian coal assets linked to the influential Bakrie family reversed into a cash shell created by Mr Rothschild. The company has been dogged by corporate governance scandals and allegations of financial irregularities that have seen the share price plummet. Mr Rothschild had proposed to replace 12 of Bumi's 14 directors and enforce greater control of Bumi's Indonesian subsidiary Berau Coal Energy. His plans were scuppered after a big Bumi shareholder, the Indonesian businessman Rosan Roeslani, whose voting power had been restricted by the Takeover Panel, sold his 10 per cent stake. The vote left all of Bumi's directors in place except Nalinkant Rathod, a representative of the Bakries, and Jean-Marc Mizrahi, while Richard Gozney, a former British ambassador to Indonesia, was elected to the board as a non-executive. Chris Fong, vice-president of the Bakrie Group, said Mr Rothschild's attempts "to gain control of Bumi have been rejected by shareholders." A crucial role was played by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, a key shareholder, which voted against Mr Rothshild's appointment to the board and for retaining Mr von Schirnding and Julian Horn-Smith, the senior independent director. Bumi said it would proceed with its plan to separate from the Bakries and restructure the board, replacing Mr Tan with a new independent chairman "who has experience in, and is familiar to, the London market." The Bakrie Group said the outcome of the vote "gives the board a clear mandate to restore shareholder value by progressing with our separation proposal."