17th Feb 2015 09:37
LONDON (Alliance News) - Petroceltic International PLC on Tuesday said it has secured the support of three corporate-governance advisory groups for its upcoming extraordinary general meeting, at which shareholders will vote on the proposals tabled by shareholder Worldview Capital Management SA to oust its chief executive and appoint Worldview nominees to the board.
The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday next week.
Petroceltic said ISS Governance Services and Glass Lewis & Co have both recommended shareholders vote against all the Worldview proposals, including the call to oust Chief Executive Brian O'Cathain and Worldview's proposal to appoint Maurice Dijols, a former executive at US oil services company Schlumberger Ltd, and Worldview partner Angelo Moskov to the board.
It also said Pensions & Investment Research Consultants Ltd, known as PIRC, has also recommended shareholders vote against the appointments of Dijols and Moskov and abstain from voting on O'Cathain's position.
Petroceltic and Worldview have been involved in a long-running war of words over the running of the company. Worldview has been seeking the removal of O'Cathain from the board since January, when it requisitioned the general meeting. It holds a 28% stake in Petroceltic.
The pair cranked up the rhetoric last week, with Worldview accusing Petroceltic of making a statement consisting "largely of baseless propaganda".
That statement, issued on Wednesday last week, came just hours after Petroceltic urged shareholders not to allow Worldview to "destroy" the company. Worldview had on Monday last week said it would not support any further capital raises for the company while Petroceltic Chief Executive O'Cathain remained on the board. It also presented a turnaround plan to other shareholders.
Urging fellow shareholders to vote for its proposals, Worldview said it is "confident" that Petroceltic will run out of money "soon" without a "radical change of strategy". Worldview also defended its plans to accelerate production while reducing pre-production capital expenditure in Algeria, calling them, "wholly feasible". In addition, it disagreed with Petroceltic's claim that it is trying to take control of the company.
Separately, Worldview said last week it will seek to "modify" its existing claim in the High Court over a "failure to conduct a corporate and strategic review of the business in breach of the shareholder agreement between Worldview and Petroceltic". It wants the claim to "include a number of further breaches to the agreement that have arisen from statements within Petroceltic's circular to shareholders on January 28, 2015".
Petroceltic shares were up 2.1% to 133.50 pence on Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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