Member Info for Digby04

Wind the clock back 3 years and the recommendations were looking very healthy: 06-Mar-15 Credit Suisse Outperform - 1,095.00 Reiteration 06-Mar-15 JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 790.00 765.00 Reiteration 05-Mar-15 Westhouse Securities Buy - 1,000.00 Reiteration 18-Feb-15 Credit Suisse Outperform 1,150.00 1,095.00 Reiteration 16-Feb-15 Morgan Stanley Overweight 730.00 800.00 Reiteration 16-Feb-15 Canaccord Genuity Buy 850.00 750.00 Reiteration 02-Feb-15 Westhouse Securities Buy 1,000.00 1,000.00 Reiteration 21-Jan-15 Westhouse Securities Buy 1,100.00 1,100.00 Reiteration 20-Jan-15 Investec Securities Buy 920.00 865.00 Reiteration 12-Jan-15 Deutsche Buy 1,000.00 800.00 Reiteration 08-Jan-15 Westhouse Securities Buy 1,100.00 1,100.00 Reiteration Let's hope we get back into that sort of ball-park in 2018. GLA

Appointment of new Chairman announced. Doesn't seem to be going down a storm with MMs just yet, but an impressive CV all the same. Hopefully, she will help bring greater focus to Tullow's operations and management of debt pile. Extract from RNS: Appointment of Dorothy Thompson CBE as non-executive Chair of Tullow Oil plc 17 April 2018 - Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dorothy Thompson as independent non-executive Director and Chair-designate of Tullow with effect from the conclusion of the Group's Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 25 April 2018. It is anticipated Dorothy will succeed Aidan Heavey, Tullow's current Chairman and Founder, as Chair at the conclusion of the Board meeting scheduled for 20 July 2018. Aidan will retire from the Board at the same time. Dorothy (57) brings extensive experience to Tullow having served for 12 years as Chief Executive Officer of Drax Group plc, the international power and energy trading company, until the end of 2017. Before joining Drax, Dorothy managed InterGen's European power business, was head of project finance at PowerGen and worked at CDC Capital Partners, the private sector arm of the British Government's aid programme. Dorothy has extensive emerging markets experience including a period working in the Commercial and Industrial division of the Bank of Botswana. Dorothy holds a BSc and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. As well as her experience with Drax, Dorothy is also currently a non-executive Director of the Court of the Bank of England (since 2014) and the NYSE-listed Eaton Corporation plc (since 2016). She was a non-executive director of Johnson Matthey plc from 2007-16.

Rodlin, ...indeed! MMs must have thought that I had finally sold and hence moved sp up again.

Hi 3CB, ...but they have been there a while! Just wondered if there was any new news to create this latest drop. Having held this dog for about 7 years, keep thinking that I should sell and try elsewhere. However, knowing my luck, as soon as I sell the sp will take off (...some hope!).

'morning All. Any thoughts on reason behind today's flash crash? Thx.

We haven't seen one of those for a while. More of the same please...!

Hi Fallingknife, I must confess that I could not resist...! Bought some more about an hour ago. I am a sucker for top-ups in situations like this. It has worked for me more times than not - if we exclude Afren and GKP...! Hopefully, ULE not quite in the same category.

Called that wrong, didn't I?! It is trying to stabilise but rebuilding trust in ULE after this series of setbacks will take time. 30% off sp in just a couple of days is some going.

Suspect that this drop is unwarranted. DoJ inspired delay to acquisition is normal practice and does not justify this over-reaction. This will turn out to have been a good buy-in point. dyor (etc.)

Good question, well asked! I have been here for about 7 years so have witnessed the highs and the lows. Interested in thoughts where this might be heading, now that we have this (modest) funding in place. GLA

His position was untenable- ditto KH. Shame on them both for not resigning before now, especially with the 2nd EGM being called.

This does BA no credit whatsoever. I had thought that he had been trying to sort out the mess that was BLVN under KH. Just shows how naive I have been....! How these guys have the audacity to remain hunkered down trying to resist CO defies imagination. Just hope that the 2nd EGM comes along soon. With luck, those PIs who might have been sitting on the fence last time around will now realise that the existing BLVN crew care only for themselves and couldn't give a toss about shareholders. BA needs to be swept away along with KH and the rest of that bunch of losers.

Investor fights to oust Bowleven chairman Greig Cameron, Scottish Business Editor March 18 2017, 12:01am, The Times Crown Ocean Capital has requested a second shareholder meeting of Bowleven in an attempt to remove Billy Allan, the chairman. The activist investor succeeded this week in ousting five out of the six directors at the oil explorer that it wanted to remove. Mr Allan held on by a narrow margin with 50.65 per cent of the votes cast against his departure. Crown Ocean is campaigning for change because it believes that Bowleven can cut costs, progress quicker on its offshore Etinde development in Cameroon, review its onshore gas project there and return some of its $95 million cash to shareholders. The Monaco-based investment vehicle urged Mr Allan to resign to avoid wasting more of the company’s resources. It offered to pay for part of the costs involved in any new meeting. Crown Ocean said that it was taking further action because Mr Allan, who previously ran Asco, an oil and gas logistics group, was unwilling to implement the changes voted for by shareholders. It claimed that Kevin Hart, Bowleven’s chief executive, and Kerry Crawford, the finance director, remained employees and have not had termination notices served even though they were voted off the board on Wednesday. Crown Ocean said: “We now see a significant danger posed by either a dysfunctional board or one controlled by Mr Allan, who could use his casting vote to maintain the status quo and protect his and the old leadership’s entrenched positions. This situation is clearly not sustainable and not in the best interest of shareholders.” It proposed two new directors. Didier Lechartier has more than 25 years’ experience in the oil and gas sector, most recently as the managing director of Egypt, Bulgaria and Italy for Petroceltic. Julien Balkany is the co-founder of Nanes Balkany Partners, a group of funds run from New York, which invests in the oil and gas sector. They would be in addition to the two Crown Ocean nominees, Eli Chahin and Christopher Ashworth, who joined the Bowleven board this week. David Clarkson, Bowleven’s chief operating officer, was not subject to a requisition from Crown Ocean and remains on the board of the Edinburgh-based company. Bowleven acknowledged the request for another general meeting but declined to answer the points raised by Crown Ocean. It promised “a detailed response” before the next meeting. After first investing in Bowleven early last year, Crown Ocean built its stake and has increased the pressure on the board in recent months. The requisition for the first meeting was made in January and by the time the proxy voting closed on March 10, Crown Ocean had increased its stake to 22 per cent. Shares in Bowleven closed up almost 4 per cent at 35½p.

Pity about the Afren connection. Not something I'd want on my CV...!

Most of Bowleven board ousted as investors back call for change - 09:09 15 Mar 2017 Only chairman Billy Allan and chief operating officer David Clarkson are staying with the oil and gas company. Africa-focused oil explorer Bowleven PLC (LON:BLVN) has seen almost all of the board depart after shareholders backed a rebel investor’s call for change. Kevin Hart, chief executive, Kerry Crawford, finance director, and three non-executives John Martin, Tim Sullivan and Philip Tracy have all ceased to be directors following the shareholder vote. Only chairman Billy Allan and chief operating officer David Clarkson are staying with the oil and gas company. Monaco-based investment fund Crown Ocean Capital called the meeting claiming the company had badly managed its African oil assets. A string of disappointments has seen the shares lose 90% of their value over the past five years. Two of COC's nominees, Christopher Ashworth and Eli Chahin, were also appointed as directors. Bowleven’s statement pointed out that without COC’s 22% stake all of the resolutions would have been defeated by a ‘significant margin‘, while major institutional investors also all voted against bar one exception. Earlier this month, Bowleven PLC (LON:BLVN) struck a deal with Victoria Oil & Gas plc (LON:VOG) that will see VOG's local subsidiary take an 80% stake in the Bomono production sharing contract (PSC), with Bowleven keeping the remainder and continuing as operator. Gas from Bomono will be sold to VOG minus a tolling fee for use of the pipeline. COC described the deal as making no sense for Bowleven shareholders. Shares dropped 5% to 32.6p.

Apologies - just notice incomplete paragraph at end of Pt 1. Here it is: With almost no debt and billions of dollars of shares repurchased over the past decade, Exxon has the financial power for almost any conceivable transaction. However, marrying the Texan company’s famously buttoned-down engineers with BP’s internal culture could be difficult.

“I don’t see what the point would be of Exxon acquiring the company,” said Iain Reid, an analyst at Macquarie in London. “There’s nothing unique about BP that Exxon can’t get something similar by just buying single assets. If I had money to invest I wouldn’t put in in BP in the hope Exxon would buy the company.” Such a combination could also be too big, attracting the attention of antitrust regulators around the world. The U.K. might object to the sale of a formerly state-owned firm. In April 2015, following Shell’s acquisition of BG Group, the British government said it would oppose any takeover of BP. “Given the excitable nature of British domestic politics at the moment, that would require some careful management,” said Alex Brooks, a London-based analyst at Canaccord. “It’s an interesting possibility but it doesn’t seem to me to be particularly likely scenario. I’d think Exxon would have other things to focus on.”

Exxon-BP Acquisition Talk Resurfaces: Is a Deal Really Likely? BP Plc’s shares surged the most this year after a London newspaper reported on rumors that Exxon Mobil Corp. sounded out major shareholders over a potential takeover. While a bid for BP can’t be ruled out, reports about Exxon’s interest have been around for years and analysts from Macquarie Capital Ltd. to Canaccord Genuity said a deal was unlikely. “The report about Exxon and BP seems to be just a rumor because because there doesn’t appear to be an obvious strategic fit,” said Anish Kapadia, a senior research analyst at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co International LLP. “It would create a company potentially too big and complex to be manageable.” Exxon and BP spokesmen declined to comment. Oil’s current downturn has resulted in just one big deal -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s $54 billion acquisition of BG Group Plc last year. Others have preferred to do smaller acquisitions as they preserve cash and protect their balance sheets. While oil prices have increased from the 12-year lows of last year, companies are still unsure if the recovery is sustainable. Still, Irving, Texas-based Exxon has one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry and hasn’t done a deal on such a large scale since the wave of oil-major consolidation in the late 1990s. In contrast, BP has shrunk significantly since 2010 oil spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico forced it to set aside more than $54 billion for compensation and penalties. BP’s Decline As recently as 2010, BP had the same market capitalization as Shell and produced more oil and gas. Today, BP’s value of $112 billion is about half that of Shell. It’s even further behind Exxon, the world’s most valuable oil company at $337 billion. As well as the daunting scale of a deal, there’s potentially a poison pill. Any buyer might be forced to accelerate the payment of as much as two-thirds of the more than $20 billion in penalties levied on BP for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to company filings. “That will significantly add to the costs,” Kapadia said. “It may not be what someone would want to take on.” That BP’s independence is even up for discussion shows the relative decline of a company that pioneered exports from the Middle East, helped start Alaska’s oil industry and led the exploration of the North Sea. Since taking over in the months following the accident, Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley sold about a third of the company’s assets and production has fallen from close to 4 million barrels a day in 2010 to a little more than 3 million. The company is trying to grow again, with a series of deals in the Middle East and Africa last year. Exxon’s Strength With almost no debt and billions of dollars of shares repurchased over the past decade, Exxon has the financial power for almost any concei

Not sure that I can see a take-over on the cards. Shell could get away with it politically, but still trying to get its house in order after the t/o of BG. I expect that HMG would not be keen on Exxon or Chevron making a move on BP (...to say nothing of Rosneft, et al!) Suspect that the $60 figure has unsettled the market. Given the current oversupply and high inventories, this figure is by no means guaranteed, even by the end of 2017. Which begs the question, if $60 is not reached by EOY, does that mean that the dividend becomes unsustainable? LTH so I shall ride this out, but interested in views on where this might be heading.

BP's bill to compensate for damages caused by the explosion and ensuing oil spill have risen to $62.6 billion.