Sir Michael Lawrence Davis (born 15 February 1958) is a British-South African businessman, financier, philanthropist, and former politician.
Davis was an executive director of the South African state-owned Eskom, one of the world's largest electricity utilities, before joining Gencor Ltd in 1994.
[10] Davis fixed Eskom's finances; however he left the company after not being selected as the chief executive officer (CEO).
[17] In 20103, Davis formed the mining venture, X2 Resources, with former colleagues including former Xstrata finance director Trevor Reid and executives Thras Moraitis, Andrew Latham, Ian Pearce and Benny Levene.
Some of his successes are the creation of the Ingwe Coal Corporation in South Africa; the listing of Billiton on the LSE;[21] the merger of Broken Hill Proprietary Company and Billiton into the largest diversified mining company in the world at the time: BHP;[22] the initial public offering of Xstrata plc on the LSE in 2002[23] and Xstrata's subsequent acquisitions of MIM Holdings[24] and Falconbridge Limited,[25] amongst others.
[30] In 2008, BSGR bribed Mamadie Touré, the wife of Guinea’s then-president Lansana Conté, with millions of dollars to enlist her help in obtaining rights to develop one of the world's largest iron ore deposits worth an estimated $10 billion[31] in the Simandou Mountains now called the Simandou mine.
After obtaining the rights to prospect the region in December 2008 for $150 million, Steinmetz sold a 51% share to mining conglomerate Vale for $2.5 billion.
[33] In February 2019, BSGR together with Guinean President Alpha Condé agreed to drop the pending arbitration case and all allegations of wrongdoing.
[40] Davis is also a member of the Brookings International Advisory Council[41] and a trustee of the Institute of National Security Studies.
[44][45][46] The Jewish Chronicle subsequently published parts of emails by Davis outlining his proposed resolution to have the CEO resign on the grounds of ill health and that he hoped the full details would not be leaked.