Cadogan Share News (CAD)

Cadogan Petroleum's largest shareholder wants three new non-executive directors appointed to the oil and gas company's board so that assets are maximised and capital is returned to shareholders. Cadogan floated on the Main Market at 230p a share in June 2008 and has lost more than 90% of its value since then. Weiss Asset management owns 25% of Cadogan and wants John Chapman, Eitan Milgram, and Stephen Coe appointed as directors. Chapman would become non-executive chairman. Milgram is employed by Weiss, which also wants Ian Baron and Nicholas Corby to step down from the board. Weiss believes that the main focus of Cadogan should be resolving litigation with former management and suppliers, collecting up to $38.5m owed by Global Process Systems LLC and realising value from Ukrainian assets. Operating cost reduction is also proposed. In 2009, the loss before tax widened to £107.2m from a loss of £24.4m the year before. Revenue for the year increased to £2.3m from £1.8m previously, after good gas and oil sales from two of its producing wells. Cadogan said that as a consequence of the downgrading of the group's reserves and resources, its Ukrainian assets were impaired by £63.5m. Net cash at year end more than halved to £30.5m.