LONDON (Alliance News) - Gulfsands Petroleum PLC said it has received a legal opinion that Al-Mashrek Global Invest Ltd, which holds a 5.74% stake in the company, should be allowed to vote in the extraordinary general meeting which is to be held Tuesday to try to resolve an ongoing dispute with other shareholders.
Gulfsands said it adopted a view that Al-Mashrek's voting rights would not be valid "in light of Syrian sanctions", but said it has now been given legal advice that the shareholder should be permitted to vote, and said it will count Al-Mashrek votes for the purposes of determining the outcome of the resolutions due to be put forward at the meeting on Tuesday, it said in a statement.
The company is hoping to resolve an ongoing dispute involving major shareholder Waterford Finance and Investment Ltd, which holds a 28.08% stake in Gulfsands, and Adbul Rahman Kayed, who holds a 9.75% stake, which both want to remove different members from the Gulfsand's board.
Waterford has reiterated its call to remove Chief Executive Mahdi Sajjad and Commercial Director Ken Judge from the board numerous times since November, as it has said it believes the pair are "primarily to blame" for what it called numerous failings across the business and poor investments. Waterford also has claimed they are both being paid too much compared to peer companies and have put Gulfsand's assets at risk via a convertible loan.
Kayed, in a separate dispute, has called for Chairman Andrew West and Independent Non-Executive Directors John Bell and James Ede-Golightly to be removed from the board. Kayed has not stated why he has called for the trio to be removed, but Waterford has defended all three of these board members' positions.
The meeting to be held Tuesday will allow shareholders to decide whether to remove any of the directors being proposed by Waterford and Kayed.
The board of Gulfsands also is split, with Non-Executive Director Joe Darby supporting West, Bell and Ede-Golightly, whilst Finance and Administration Director Alan Cutler and Technical and Operations Executive Director Ian Conway support Sajjad and Judge.
Gulfsands shares closed down 0.9% to 28.25 pence per share on Monday.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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