EXI.L Share News (EXI)

Exillon Energy, the Russia-focused oil producer, announced the appointment of two new directors and that it has begun the hunt for a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in a bid to strengthen its internal financial oversight functions. Alexander Suchkov was chosen as both an executive director and as deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Suchkov is currently the head of the production and development sector of Oil and Gas LLC and NK Dulisma in Moscow.Sergey Koshelenko was selected as a Non-Executive Director of the company. He has 20 years' experience in banking and at the moment is Deputy CEO at Russia's VEB Capital. The above mentioned gentlemen took over their new posts on January 20th 2014.Said appointments were made on the recommendation of Seneal International Agency, an investment vehicle controlled by Alexei Khotin, the ultimate beneficial owner of the Rusoil group. Exillon has been the object of several take-over approaches since last summer, including a failed one by its founder Kazakh businessman Maksat Arip, which culminated with the acquisition of a 29.99% stake by Seneal in December 2013. Towards the end of that same month Seneal informed the market that it had decided against making an offer for the remainder of the share capital. The firm's Non-Executive Chairman, David Herbert, highlighted that the above appointments aimed to balance the interest of all the shareholders - including those of RusOil group, who was now its largest. Half of the proposed board (four out of eight) was to be comprised of independent non-executives, he further explained. At 11:31 shares of Exillon were trading lower by 0.31% to 159p. AB