Abdullah brothers resign Starmin posts: Quarrying group scraps final dividend

THE ABDULLAH brothers, Raschid and Osman, have resigned from their executive positions at Starmin, the quarrying group that yesterday scrapped its final dividend, although Raschid is to stay on as a non-executive director.

Starmin also announced an extensive review of past accounting treatment of disposals and acquisitions. It will be chaired by Lord Parkinson, the former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, who has stepped up from deputy chairman.

Together with a third brother, Osman and Raschid Abdullah - who were respectively chief executive and an executive director - own a 17 per cent stake in Starmin, which in May disclosed pre-tax losses of pounds 8.06m for 1992 against profits of pounds 1.94m the previous year.

Starmin has delayed publishing its annual report and accounts until the review is completed in late July.

The company warned that the review might result in adjustments or additional disclosures to the published 1991 accounts and/or the preliminary results for 1992.

It will not offer the enhanced share scrip alternative of 0.3p per share. Yesterday the shares, 10.5p a year ago, closed down 2p at 4.75p.

The Abdullah brothers, best known for turning around a small Midlands engineering company in the mid-80s into Evered, the multimillion-pound conglomerate, were not available for comment. But a company spokesman said there was no question of fraud or financial wrongdoing. Sources close to Starmin said operational activities would be little affected.

The Abdullah brothers came to Starmin in 1990 after being ousted from Evered in a boardroom split, and immediately called a pounds 9m rights issue to buy three quarrying companies.

Later that year they issued 6.6 million new Starmin shares for further acquisitions and, in 1991, shareholders were again tapped, this time for pounds 20m, to help fund more quarry-related acquisitions and repay debt.

In 1992 it sold its engineering division, Hibbert & Richards and SI Industries, for pounds 880,000.

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