Hurricane Board & Withdrawing of GM Requisition
30 June 2021
CRYSTAL AMBER FUND LIMITED
("Crystal Amber Fund" or the "Fund")
Hurricane Energy plc ("Hurricane") Board Changes and Withdrawing of General Meeting Requisition
Crystal Amber notes and welcomes this morning's announcement from Hurricane that its five non-executive directors have resigned with immediate effect and in their stead, directors nominated by Crystal Amber, Alan John Wright and David Craik have been appointed to its board, with Mr Wright installed as Interim Chairman. As a result, the general meeting scheduled for 5 July 2021 is no longer necessary and Crystal Amber has therefore withdrawn its requisition.
These board changes follow the judgment delivered on 28 June 2021 by Mr Justice Zacaroli in the High Court of Justice in which Hurricane's Restructuring Plan, that would have seen shareholders massively diluted, was not sanctioned after Crystal Amber strongly opposed it.
Mr Justice Zacaroli referred in his judgment to the continued profitable trading at Hurricane and the prospects of that continuing long into the future. In this regard, last week, Bluewater Energy Services B.V. (from whom Hurricane leases the FPSO - Floating Production Storage and Offloading - vessel) made contact directly with Crystal Amber in which it stated that it remains very keen to progress discussions and investigate solutions and proposals to extend the charter beyond June 2022.
Crystal Amber regards Lancaster as one of the most prolific production wells in the North Sea. Crystal Amber would refer market participants to Hurricane's Restructuring Business Plan Presentation dated 24 May 2021, which is available on the company's website. The presentation sets out Hurricane's long range forecast of production from its existing P6 Well. By February 2024, this is estimated to deliver 8.4 million barrels of oil. Based on the forward curve for oil prices, this would generate approximately $600 million of revenue. Based on historic margins, this would deliver operating cash flows of in excess of $250 million.
Crystal Amber is acutely aware that Bondholders are owed $230 million, repayable in July 2022. The most recently disclosed gross cash at Hurricane is approximately $190 million, with unrestricted cash of $145 million. Unrestricted cash is expected to further increase each month between now and next year. Crystal Amber looks forward to and expects the newly constituted board to focus on continuing to meet its obligations to its bondholders and repaying the bonds at maturity, so that the company can then fully capitalise on other opportunities within its portfolio.
In relation to the current Executive Directors - Mr Maris and Mr Chaffe - whilst Crystal Amber continues to have serious concerns as to their suitability and performance, it was not seeking their removal at the general meeting scheduled for 5 July 2021. This was to ensure continuity with the proposed incoming Non-Executive Directors. Market participants would have seen from Hurricane's announcement of the result of the sanction hearing an assertion that in the event the Executive Directors were removed from the Board at the AGM today, the Company's Nominated Adviser was likely to resign with immediate effect. As a consequence, this would have resulted in the shares of the company being suspended from trading and, if a replacement Nominated Adviser was not in place within a period of one month, it would have resulted in the shares being de-listed from AIM.
In the circumstances, and following discussions between Crystal Amber and Hurricane, it was agreed that it was in the best interests of all stakeholders that the Executive Directors remain on the Board for the time being.
For further enquiries please contact:
Crystal Amber Fund Limited
Chris Waldron (Chairman)
Tel: 01481 742 742
Allenby Capital Limited - Nominated Adviser
David Worlidge/Liz Kirchner
Tel: 020 3328 5656
Winterflood Investment Trusts - Broker
Joe Winkley/Neil Langford
Tel: 020 3100 0160
Crystal Amber Advisers (UK) LLP - Investment Adviser
Richard Bernstein
Tel: 020 7478 9080
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