Bowleven directors facing defeat in boardroom battle
Crown Ocean Capital is set to oust chief executive Hart today
THE activist investor that has been campaigning to clear out the boardroom at oil and gas firm Bowleven is expected to declare victory today.
City sources have confirmed the results of proxy votes cast by last night confirm that Monaco-based Crown Ocean Capital has gathered enough support for its resolutions to remove all but one of Bowleven’s board of directors, including chief executive Kevin Hart.
It comes after Crown Ocean ramped up its stake in Edinburghbased Bowleven last week, lifting its voting rights from 17.6 per cent per cent to 22 per cent.
Reports have suggested that Mr Hart, chairman Billy Allan and four other directors will announce their resignations at a general meeting in today. But the company declined to comment.
The results of the resolutions tabled by Crown Ocean will be confirmed at the general meeting in Edinburgh.
Crown Ocean, the single biggest investor in Bowleven, made no further comment yesterday, beyond noting that it would make an announcement after the meeting if the votes go its way.
In January the investment firm, which was co-founded by German financiers Christian Petersmann and Konstantin Stoyanov, delivered a withering assessment of Bowleven’s financial performance as it called for the removal of Mr Hart and five other directors.
Crown Ocean is calling for two new directors – corporate lawyer Christopher Ashworth and turnaround expert Eli Chahin – to be placed on the board, alongside current chief operating officer Dave Clarkson. It wants the company to cut costs and embark on a radically different strategy.
Crown Ocean, which failed in November to have three Bowleven non-executive directors replaced, claimed in January that the “record of shareholder value destruction is evident” at the firm.
It questioned the board’s approach in continuing to run up costs on the Bomono onshore permit in Cameroon – in spite of spending around $100 million on the field “without having shown convincing economic prospects”.
It said at the time: “We do not believe the board in its current composition is suited to undertake
‘‘ The activist investor wants the company to cut costs and embark on radically different strategy
the necessary strategic review or subsequent required actions.”
However, Bowleven has vigorously defended its position by saying that Crown Ocean lacks a strategy to maximise value from its assets in Cameroon.
The company, which in light of the resolutions has announced the support of a range of shareholder advisory groups, has hit back at the “misleading and flawed information” cited by Crown Ocean.
It told investors in January: “The board believes that the resolutions, combined with the misleading and flawed information contained in COC’s press release ... are wholly self-serving and represent a blatant attempt by COC to try to attain control of the business.”
Bowleven added: “The existing board and company is wellpositioned to deliver on its strategy as set out in its recent results and deliver greater value than a break-up and asset strip of the company would achieve.”
Bowleven, which does not hold any producing assets, announced last week that it had agreed to sell its interest in the Bomono asset in Cameroon. Mr Hart said the farm-in deal, which would see Victoria Oil & Gas acquire an 80 per cent interest in the permit, would allow Bowleven to accelerate the process of realising cash from the discoveries while reducing the cost of bringing them on-stream. However, Victoria has the right to terminate the agreement if any of the nine resolutions requisitioned by Crown Ocean are passed at today’s meeting.
Shares in Bowleven closed up by 2.78 per cent, or 1p, at 35p.