Gutseriev outfit buys 15% of Exillon Energy
MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) - Flowdale Investments, Ltd., the beneficiary of which is the main RussNeft stockholder Mikhail Gutseriev, has acquired 14.9% of the stock in Britain's Exillon Energy, which has hydrocarbon assets in Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District and Republic of Komi.
The transaction occurred on November 18, a Flowdale statement says.
The company acquired 24,065,588 Exillon shares for 275 pence each. The Gutseriev organization spent 66.18 million pounds in all, or $106 million. The company was valued for the deal at $700 million, a bit more than its current capitalization on the London Stock Exchange - 425 million pounds, or $680 million.
The Exillon board of directors is saying that the process of selling the company, which was announced back in September, is still in progress. The company reckons to report the outcome before year-end.
Worldview EHS International Master Fund, one of Exillon Energy's shareholders, announced on November 18 that it had sold its entire 14.9% stake for 275 pence per shares.
Worldview was not of the company's biggest stockholders after Exillon founder Maksat Arip. He holds 30.2% of the company stock. Other shareholders are Schroders plc with 5.9%, J.P. Morgan with 9.23%, and Capital Group Companies with 7%.
Worldview, not happy with Exillon's week financial and production figures and low stock price, demanded early this year a change of the oil company's board of directors. Worldview asked Exillon to call an extraordinary shareholder meeting in order to replace the chairman of the board of directors and introduce three new non-executive directors to the board: Executive Director of British oil and gas producer Caithness Petroleum Yves Merer, Non-Executive Director of East West Petroleum Corporation James Dewar, and General Director of Worldview Capital Management Andrey Kruglykhin.
An EGM was scheduled, but called off. The stockholder itself subsequently retracted its demands, Exillon said.
Worldview is a private investment company that puts money in to countries in Europe, Central Asia, Africa, Russia, and elsewhere in the Commonwealth of Independent States.