Activist investor Worldview Capital Management LLP said Thursday, Jan. 8, it will seek to oust the CEO of London-listed Petroceltic International plc citing, amongst its reasons, the aborted £606 million ($913 million) bid by Dragon Oil plc. Worldview, which owns 28% of Dublin-based Petroceltic, called for a shareholder vote to remove Brian O'Cathain, claiming he bore responsibility for "a series of strategic and corporate governance failures" in 2014. The final straw for Worldview came in December when O'Cathain was awarded nil-cost options on 438,000 shares, worth £556,000. "The award of the shares in the light of the generally poor performance is the problem," said a spokeswoman. "The failure of the takeover is part of that poor performance." Dubai-based Dragon Oil in October offered 230 pence per share for Petroceltic. The bid won the support of the board but Dragon Oil pulled it in early December, blaming "market conditions" as oil prices plunged. Worldview also blamed O'Cathain for "dismal drilling results" and criticized his role in last year's sale of $100 million of shares, which diluted existing shareholders because Petroceltic reserved half of the shares for new investor Dovenby Capital Ltd., a fund led by Malaysian businessman Dato' Ahmad Fuad. Worldview initially opposed the sale and offered to underwrite the sale at a higher price before giving its support in exchange for changes to the board and share voting arrangements. "Our call for removal of Brian O'Cathain from the board is a necessary next step following his leadership failures that caused us to have serious doubts that he is a suitable and sufficiently competent individual to serve on the board," said Worldview CEO and founder Angelo Moskov in a statement. Petroceltic made a loss of $57 million in the first half of 2014 after it wrote off $64.3 million of exploration costs linked to failed wells in Kurdistan, Romania and Egypt. It had proven and probable reserves of 361 million barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2013. Worldview said it will seek to replace O'Cathain with Maurice Dijols, formerly president of the Russian operations of oil services provider Schlumberger Ltd. Worldview chief Moskov will also seek a board position as a non-executive director. Worldview declined to say what strategy it wanted Petroceltic to pursue or if it planned to seek a buyer for the company. Petroceltic had yet to respond to the Worldview statemetn by early afternoon in London. A person familiar with the company's thinking said: "The allegations and actions [of Worldview] run counter to the interests of all shareholders." Shares in Petroceltic traded Thursday at 122.75 pence, up less than 1 pence on their previous close. Read more from:
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