old news from 201320 May 2015 13:01
MIDAS SHARE TIPS: Shares in oil and gas explorer Northern Petroleum are cheap - and exciting projects are in place
By JOANNE HART, FINANCIAL MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 22:03, 26 October 2013 | UPDATED: 09:50, 28 October 2013
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Promise: Keith Bush plans to keep investors more informed over progress at the firm's sites
Promise: Keith Bush plans to keep investors more informed over progress at the firm's sites
Oil and gas explorer Northern Petroleum spent years over-promising and under-delivering. Duly punished by the stock market, the shares tumbled from almost 200p in July 2007 to just 31.5p today, but at this price, they are cheap.
The board has been completely rejigged, several exciting prospects are in place and news on these is expected before the end of the year, which should give the stock a lift. The group also has £28 million in the bank after new chief executive Keith Bush sold the firm’s Dutch assets this month.
Yet the company is valued on the market at just over £30 million, suggesting investors put almost no value on any of the other assets – a producing well in West Sussex, a large redevelopment site in Canada, an offshore prospect in Italy, a share in a big project in French Guiana and a shale oil licence in Australia.
Investor scepticism towards Northern stems from a series of disappointments in the past. Bush aims to change that.
Appointed chief operating officer last year, he became chief executive this summer. The board of ten has been cut to six, with only three from the old guard. The other three are Bush, finance director Nick Morgan and chairman Jon Murphy, appointed just a month ago. Further board changes are expected.
Murphy has more than 30 years’ experience in oil and gas and was a leading executive at Venture Production, a business that started out as a small private firm, floated at £180 million in 2002 and was sold to Centrica for £1.3 billion in 2009.
When Bush joined Northern, the main focus was on exploration off the coast of Italy and a small share in the French Guiana project. Both have plenty of potential, but the previous management was uncommunicative and shareholders lost interest.
Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-2477456/MIDAS-Shares-oil-gas-explorer-Northern-Petroleum-cheap.html#ixzz3afwHLbtD
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