25th Feb 2015 16:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shareholders of Petroceltic International PLC have voted against the removal of Chief Executive Brian O'Cathain at an extraordinary general meeting Wednesday with a 61.10% majority, and rejected the candidates put forward by its largest shareholder Worldview Capital Management LLP.
Worldview requisitioned an extraordinary general meeting to remove O'Cathain, blaming him for what it deemed as the "failure of the company". At that time it said the leadership of Petroceltic was overpaid and underperforming, and said it would refuse to support any further capital raising by the company, unless it got its way at the general meeting.
It proposed instead that Maurice Dijols, the former president of the Russian operations of US-based oil services group Schlumberger Ltd, be elected to the board as an independent non-executive director, alongside Angelo Moskov, a founder partner and director at Worldview.
However, shareholders voted against Dijols joining the board by a slim majority, with 50.92% of shareholders voting against his appointment, while 61.30% of shareholders voted against the appointment of Moskov.
Shareholders voted in favour of the appointment of two new directors, Nicholas Gay and Neeve Billis, who were proposed by Petroceltic, with 60.94% voting in favour of Gay's appointment and 50.14% for Billis'.
"I would like to thank shareholders for the remarkably high number of votes cast in respect of the resolutions today. Petroceltic is committed to working with all shareholders in an open and constructive manner and in the best interests of the company and its long term value," said Chairman of Petroceltic Roger Adair in a statement.
Woldview later demanded to inspect all the proxy and poll votes cast in light of a "high retail investor turnout and the narrow margin of several resolutions". It had already asked to inspect the proxy votes, but that request was turned down by the company.
"In addition, Worldview also demands that the Chairman confirms whether and how he or the registrars exercised any discretion to accept or reject any votes cast. If this request is refused, Worldview believes that shareholders should have serious concerns about the openness of the process," it said in a statement.
"Worldview does not support the appointments of Neeve Billis and Nicholas Gay or the continued board presence of Brian O'Cathain, who we maintain has been the primary architect of the company's failed strategy," it added.
Shares in Petroceltic are trading down 4.5% at 128.00 pence Wednesday afternoon.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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