A mining lease was about to expire, and a major project that would bring in significant revenue could not be initiated. The was too much uncertainly surrounding the lease, and it was unknown whether the project would remain viable in a rapidly evolving business environment.
The resource owner indicated that they were looking to renegotiate terms and take significant value away from the project developers. The developer’s internal financial assessments indicated that the changes to contract terms could result in project cost and schedule delays. This could, in turn, deprioritize the project in the portfolio, leading management to assign this project’s funding to other internal portfolio plans.
Toyin Longe, Senior Executive
Toyin Longe faced the challenge head on. I asked her to explain her approach and she said, “The developers established a working relationship with the resource owner to analyze contract terms, value levers, and identified terms that would meet the value objectives of the resource owner and their implications.”
Longe proposed new terms and workable solutions that tempered financial impacts to the project developers. “This grew value across the board. An additional benefit of this strategy was that the parties resolved their long running disagreement and built back trust into their relationship. Approval was subsequently obtained to enter into the renewal terms, and this headed off reallocation of financing away from the project,” Longe said.
The key contributors to Longe’s success were the ability to articulate arguments in logical, measured, and methodical manner by both sides. Negotiating skills and depth of technical and commercial knowledge helped break down difficult technical aspects of the deal into simpler components and allowed non-technical experts on the team to relate to the negotiator’s viewpoint. A willingness to push the envelope in thinking and explore creative ideas to “grow the pie” for all.
“One aspect of this project that I enjoyed was the ability to exercise my persuasive and agility skills to build and sustain both internal and external relationships. This led to improved contract terms, the ability to monetize an important asset, and profits in excess of $1B over a 20-year period,” Longe said.
Watch full video interview below
Reach out to Toyin Longe via LinkedIn or her Career WebFolio.
Fred Coon, CEO
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