SHAREHOLDERS in Bowleven are waiting for the results of votes on proposals for a boardroom clearout at the oil and gas firm following a low key general meeting yesterday.
Investors in Edinburgh-based Bowleven met to vote on resolutions proposing the removal of chief executive Kevin Hart and five other directors with immediate effect.
The resolutions were requisitioned by Crown Ocean Capital which said a radical change of strategy was needed at Bowleven to prevent the company wasting its remaining $95 million (£78m) cash.
Bowleven has licences in Cameroon.
On Monday City sources said the results of proxy votes cast meant Monaco-based Crown Ocean had gathered the required support for its resolutions to remove all but one of Bowleven’s board of directors.
Crown Ocean also proposed that two new directors be appointed to join chief operating officer David Clarkson on the board.
Aim-listed Bowleven had not announced the results by the time the regulatory news service closed for new postings yesterday evening.
Some votes were cast by shareholders at yesterday’s meeting, which lasted less than 15 minutes.
Mr Hart and Bowleven’s chairman Billy Allan sat at the top table.
Neither made any speeches in defence of the board at the meeting.
There were no questions from any of the 30 or so people in attendance at the meeting, which was held in the offices of Bowleven’s legal advisor Shepherd and Wedderburn.
Terry Heneaghan, a former chief executive of Bowleven who played a key role in its early attempts to develop an exploration and production business focused on Cameroon, attended the meeting.
It followed a bitter war of words between Crown Ocean Capital and the Bowleven board.
Owned by German financiers Christian Petersmann and Konstantin Stoyanov, Crown Ocean had accused Bowleven of a catastrophic financial performance.
It said Bowleven should be transformed into a holding company which would be able to return excess cash to shareholders.
The firm has amassed a 22 per cent holding in Bowleven.
It has said it is acting in the interests of all shareholders.
Bowleven had said Crown Ocean wanted to turn the company into a cash dispenser for its own benefit and lacked a strategy to maximise value from the company’s assets in Cameroon.
The company’s board said Bowleven’s Cameroon plans could deliver material upside while it had reduced overheads significantly.
All the members of the board, including Mr Clarkson, recommended shareholders vote against the resolutions proposed by Crown Ocean. These included calls for lawyer Christopher Ashworth and turnaround expert Eli Chahin to be appointed to join Mr Clarkson on the board.
Mr Hart became chief executive of Bowleven late in 2006 after working for Cairn Energy.
Bowleven sold stakes in the offshore Etinde licence for $250m in 2014 before the crude price plunge triggered a deep downturn in the industry.
Shares in Bowleven closed down 0.5p at 34.5p yesterday.
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