Nat Rothschild loses Bumi chair after row

The millionaire financier Nat Rothschild has been ousted as co-chairman of Bumi, one of the world's largest thermal coal exporters. Mr Rothschild fell out with the Bakrie family, his Indonesian partners in the mining enterprise, last November.

The new chairman is the Indonesian coal entrepreneur Samin Tan, who with the Bakrie family controls 29.9 per cent of Bumi's voting rights. However, in a sign of compromise between the two sides, Mr Rothschild will remain on the Bumi board as a non-independent director.

Mr Tan said he hoped the row had now been settled. "From now on, let's just look ahead... I hope that from now on you won't see any more arguments, especially in the public domain," he told reporters.

Bumi announced the management shake-up yesterday alongside its first full-year results, which showed a pre-tax loss of $115m (£72m) as a result of a $286m accounting charge.

Mr Rothschild, a scion of the banking dynasty, was embroiled in political controversy in 2008 when it emerged that he had hosted a meeting between the Russian aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska and the then EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson. Bumi completed a $3bn deal last year to acquire stakes in two coal producers in Indonesia.