Hurricane Energy shares up as High Court rejects restructuring plan

(Alliance News) - Hurricane Energy PLC on Monday said the High Court of Justice of England & ...

Alliance News 28 June, 2021 | 1:03PM
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(Alliance News) - Hurricane Energy PLC on Monday said the High Court of Justice of England & Wales has not sanctioned its restructuring plan after a sanction hearing last week.

Shares in Hurricane were trading up 23% at 2.67 pence each in London on Monday afternoon.

The Surrey, England-based oil and gas company said its board is "considering all options, including an appeal" in response to the court's decision.

However, the company said that unless it was successfully appealed the restructuring plan could not be implemented.

Hurricane's board proposed the financial restructuring plan in April, following talks with its bondholders, who own 69% of the company's USD230 million convertible bonds due in July 2022. Given the diminished expectations of the Lancaster field, Hurricane considered that it was unable to repay the bondholders and initiated financial restructuring of the debt on April 30.

Notably, at the company's general meeting on June 11, 92% of shareholders voted against resolution to approve the restructuring plan.

Simon Walton, acting on behalf of Crystal Amber Fund Ltd, which owns around 15% of Hurricane's issued share capital, said: "Against all the odds, this is a victory for shareholders big and small who faced having their legal rights being overridden. The board putting this restructuring plan before the court now was premature, and influenced by the committee of bondholders trying to take control of the company away from shareholders.

"As the judge recognised in his judgment, the bondholders' desire to obtain control of the company is not a good reason to deprive the shareholders, now, of all but a fraction of their equity, rather than waiting to see if the actual performance over the coming months continues to improve. It is especially concerning that the current board was seemingly willing to exploit legislation introduced in response to the Covid pandemic to do so."

Hurricane noted that those shareholders who did not support the restructuring plan currently intend to either: vote against company directors standing for re-election at the upcoming annual general meeting on Wednesday; or, to support resolutions offered by Crystal Amber Fund to remove all of non-executive directors at the upcoming extraordinary general meeting next Monday.

The company noted that if all executive director were removed, the company's nominated advisor "is likely to resign with immediate effect", causing share trading to be suspended and potentially de-listed if another adviser is not nominated within a month.

By Scarlett Butler; scarlettbutler@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.

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