LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Alpha Blue Ocean Advisors Inc. (“Alpha Blue Ocean”), an alternative investment firm specialising in providing innovative financial solutions for publicly listed entities, has issued a statement about today’s Extraordinary General Meeting (“EGM”) of Element ASA (“Element”) in Oslo.
Pierre Vannineuse, the founder of Alpha Blue Ocean, said in the statement, “Element’s EGM exposed very deep failings in the corporate governance of the firm. Firstly, an acquisition (that of PALCapital) was rushed through last week which involved issuing new shares in the firm with the obvious intent of diluting current shareholders, diminishing their voting rights, and entrenching current management. We note that were it not for the dilution created by the PALCapital transaction (closed two business days before the general meeting), ABO would have clearly controlled the vote at the general meeting as Element’s largest shareholder.
Continuing the statement, Mr Vannineuse said: “We also found out at the general meeting today that the Chairman’s majority owned and controlled company, ProCorp (where the Chairman is also the Managing Partner), was paid a NOK 180K fee by Element for the PALCapital transaction. Accordingly, one could be forgiven for questioning whether the main purpose of the transaction was for the Chairman to control the vote at today’s general meeting, and for the cash fee payment of NOK 180,000 to the Chairman’s owned and controlled company, ProCorp.
Continuing the statement, Mr Vannineuse said: “So concerning was the PALCapital transaction and the related extraordinary cash fee payment to the Chairman’s company ProCorp, that we are urgently seeking detailed information about it from Element management and will consider a court supervised investigation if necessary. Despite these grave circumstances, Element’s management nevertheless used the new shares issued prior to the EGM to control the business of the EGM.
Mr Vannineuse concluded: “Finally, Alpha Blue Ocean has been very transparent about our desire to reform Element’s board and appoint David Sefton as Chairman, and indeed issued press releases to this effect which are in the public domain. Despite this, Element management claimed at the EGM that they were not aware who we wanted to propose as Chairman.”
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About Alpha Blue Ocean
Alpha Blue Ocean was founded by Pierre Vannineuse and is the investment manager to a family of funds operating across multiple jurisdictions. Alpha Blue Ocean specialises in providing flexible, innovative and non-invasive debt and equity financing to publicly listed companies across the world and in a variety of sectors including healthcare, energy, mining and technology. Alpha Blue Ocean’s main representation office is based in London, UK.
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