Former Columbus team approached by shareholders to take over the board at Prospex Energy

London South East were joined by Leo Koot, the experienced oil and gas executive who, with his team, is bidding to take over the board at the European gas company Prospex Energy. Prospex or PXEN hold a small portfolio of non-operated gas assets in Spain and Italy. Leo Koot is the prospective new Chairman at Prospex Energy and if successful will be joined as CFO on the board by his former colleague from Columbus Gordon Stein.

So what attracted the team to Prospex Energy? As Leo explains, "It may be sleepy at the moment, but we are going to make it very exciting. We were approached by the three main shareholders in Prospex Energy [who hold approximately 20% of the shares]. They enjoyed the ride in Zephyr Energy. Colin Harrington [Zephyr CEO] and Gordon Stein [Zephyr NED] were approached, and that was a great opportunity for us to bring the team back together again."

So why do you think you and the team could make a better job of running Prospex? "It's a sleepy company with non-operated assets and relatively small assets in Spain and Italy. We want to create a business of scale, similar to Zephyr, which by now is I think around £75M market cap" explained Leo. "And we will bring ready made deals to the table, through our connections in the industry."

"Prospex has shown over the last 3/4 years that it has been set up purely as a non-operated entity. It's an investment company which takes stakes in gas fields in Europe, operated by other parties. That automatically means you don't have a leading role in how those projects are developed, in bringing forward ideas and creating excitement and energy around those prospects."

"I think with current gas prices in Europe those gas assets are very good assets to have and they are a solid foundation. From there we will grow with a key focus on ESG.

Prospex have called an EGM for October 5th at 9.30 am. "What I hope for is that shareholders support the new team coming in. In practical terms this means voting for Resolutions 1-8, and rejecting Resolutions 11 to 14. A simple majority is what's required".

Leo is keen to emphasise that the shareholders didn't want to bring this to an EGM. "We engaged with the board and CEO and tried to collectively come up with a revised strategy but unfortunately we didn't make any progress."

"We have just launched a website called newprospexenergy.co.uk and I'm keen to set up a Zoom or Teams call with investors to talk through our plans."