Hurricane Energy Chairman and directors resign ahead of general meeting By Investing.com

By Samuel Indyk

Investing.com – Hurricane Energy (LON:HUR) chairman and four non-executive directors have all resigned from the board with immediate effect.

Chairman Steven McTiernan, along with John van der Welle, Sandy Shaw, Beverley Smith and Dr David Jenkins have all surrendered their positions ahead of a key vote on their positions at an upcoming meeting.

Additionally, the company has announced Alan John Wright and David Ian Craik have been appointed to the board as non-executive directors. Wright will assume the position of interim chairman.

Crystal Amber Fund, which owns more than 11% of the company’s shares had proposed a meeting on July 5th where shareholders were to vote on the removal of the board members, but that meeting will now no longer take place.

“I would like to thank Steven and the other non-executive directors for their contribution to the Board over their years of service, particularly during the recent challenging period for the Company,” said Hurricane Energy CEO Antony Maris. “I would also like to welcome David and John to Hurricane and look forward to working with them as we aim to maximise the value of our West of Shetland assets for the benefit of stakeholders.”

The update comes just two days after the UK’s High Court ruled it would not sanction the company’s financial restructuring plan, which would have effectively wiped out its shareholders.

Hurricane had argued the plan was a necessary step to secure its future, but the plan was unpopular with major shareholder Crystal Amber, who had pushed for the removal of the directors.

Today’s AGM will continue to go ahead where shareholders will vote on the re-election of CEO Maris and Richard Chaffe as directors of the company.

If they are not approved, the company has consulted with its largest shareholders and said it  would immediately re-appoint them as directors of the company, in order to ensure that the company is able to maintain its ability to safely and effectively operate as a listed business.

At 10:02BST, shares in Hurricane Energy were trading higher by 19.3% at 3.34 pence per share.