Reuters: Hot Stocks: UPDATE 1-Energy firm JKX's top shareholder seeks to oust CEO

Reuters: Hot Stocks Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

UPDATE 1-Energy firm JKX's top shareholder seeks to oust CEO May 23rd 2013, 10:35 Thu May 23, 2013 6:35am EDT (Adds detail on Ukrainian billionaire, Eclairs director comments, shares) By Stephen Eisenhammer LONDON May 23 (Reuters) - The top shareholder in Eastern Europe-focused energy group JKX has called on fellow investors to oust the chief executive, citing an 88 percent fall in the share price over the past five years. Eclairs Group, an investment vehicle of Ukrainian billionaire Igor Kolomoisky with a 27 percent stake in JKX, recommended that shareholders vote against the re-election of Paul Davies as a director of JKX at the annual general meeting on June 5. "We have serious concerns over JKX's operational and financial performance, which has been in consistent decline over a number of years," the group said in an open letter. "We believe that these issues are a direct result of poor management and in particular are the responsibility of Dr Paul Davies, CEO, and Mr Peter Dixon, commercial director," the group said. Michael Bakunenko, director of Eclairs, said the second-largest shareholder in JKX - investment vehicle Glengary which owns 11.45 percent - also supported the ousting of Davies. The measure now must win another roughly 12 percent to reach a majority vote. JKX shares were up 5.4 percent at 59 pence at 1219 GMT on Thursday. They were still down by 22.8 percent following its release last month of figures for 2012 showing production had fallen by 8.4 percent to 8,281 barrels of oil equivalent per day and operating profit by nearly a quarter to $51.6 million. Bakunenko was asked whether the letter was a move towards a takeover. "This is not a takeover. We're fully committed for JKX to be an independent listed company delivering value to all shareholders," he said. "There is absolutely no overlap with any other companies run by Igor Kolomoisky or (his partner) Gennadiy Bogolyubov," he added. Eclairs had filed a request for an extraordinary general meeting in March to remove Davies, but that was denied by JKX on the grounds it was invalid. In the request, Eclairs proposed three of its own nominees for directorships, saying they have expertise in the region: Borys Epshtein, Stanislav Yudin and Oleksandr Ratskevych. Kolomoisky founded the Privat metals and banking group, which runs a number of oil, gas and steel companies focused on Eastern Europe. (Additional reporting by Karen Rebelo; Editing by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Jane Baird) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions