Fresh twist in the JKX board battle as Proxima sells stake
THE bitter boardroom struggle over oil producer JKX has taken yet another unexpected twist after its second largest shareholder sold its stake to a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
Proxima Capital has sold its almost 20pc stake to a Cayman Island-based investment fund, Cascade, owned by businessman and politician Vitaliy Khomutynnik, in a deal which marks the end of its more than three-year campaign to wrest control of the group.
The Russian firm’s representatives on the board, Vladimir Tatarchuk and Vladimir Rusinov, have both resigned after presiding over an almost threefold increase in the value of the London-listed business.
Hans Jochum Horn, chairman of JKX, said there are no plans to replace the pair and the board looks forward to “building a constructive relationship” with the new shareholder.
Proxima has been agitating for change since early 2015 when it dropped its offer to buy the firm. By the end of the year it called for a general meeting to replace the majority of the board.
But despite Proxima’s successful boardroom purge, the fund suffered a counter-coup in the JKX boardroom last summer in which rival shareholder Eclairs Group ousted the Proximabacked chief and chief financial officer.
Mr Horn said: “I would like to thank Vladimir Tatarchuk and Vladimir Rusinov for their support and contribution during a challenging phase in the company’s history.”
“The interim results demonstrate that we are making progress in stabilising the business and restoring shareholder value,” he added.
The company turned a modest profit of $1.9m (£1.49m) for the first six months of the year, after wrenching itself up from a $7.7m loss in the same period last year.
JKX’S shares, which scraped eightyear lows of 11p in January, closed down 1.7pc at 29.5p yesterday.