Global Natural Energy Share Discussion Threads

[guru] 04/3/2009 10:12

At the Company's General Meeting held today, the proposal by the Executive
Chairman of a resolution to adjourn the General Meeting to Tuesday 31 March at
10:30am at the office of Seymour Pierce, 20 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7EN, was
duly passed


What is this all about?

[model635] 04/3/2009 08:02

Good luck to all - I wonder how many draft RNSs are in Port's briefcase!

[model635] 03/3/2009 17:05

It's all down to Vaiman - if he votes NO then the board and Ratcliffe have a major headache, regardless of a majority win for reolution 1.

They can't move forward with a no confidence vote in excess of 25 - 30% of the issued shares.

[guru] 03/3/2009 17:00

Hey Guys, good luck tomorrow if you are attending in person. I have already voted "NO" and have a Halifax Letter confirming that my vote will be counted (blue form or not!). Let us hope we pull it off.

[kooba] 03/3/2009 16:32

anyone getting the early train up to town to get their vote in personally?

[kooba] 03/3/2009 16:30

complaints were made to aim regulation i believe about content of communication and they have obviously been forced to clarify the misleading statements.....it's a start!

[giovannina] 03/3/2009 16:29

is it a coded message..???? Translate please....

[model635] 03/3/2009 16:01

Very odd the day before the meeting and after the deadline for proxy votes

[guru] 03/3/2009 15:56

Sounds to me like a degree of panic......

[model635] 03/3/2009 15:49

What is the reasoning behind today's statement? panic or confidence or more manipulation?

[kooba] 03/3/2009 15:28

Clarification of statements


Following queries raised by the Shareholder Action Group the Directors wish to
clarify certain statements contained in their letter to shareholders dated 24
February 2009.


With regard to the statement 'The GNE share price peaked at GBP1.90 as a result
of Mr Ratcliffe's acquisition of his stake', having reviewed trading for the
week commencing Monday 8 December 2008, the Directors note that the closing
price for ordinary shares was 181 pence on Monday 8 December 2008 increasing to
187.5 pence on Friday 12 December 2008 the day Mr. Ratcliffe acquired his
ordinary shares. The closing price for the ordinary shares peaked at 190
pence on Tuesday 9 December 2008.


The Directors wish to clarify the statement that "at least 38% of the shares in
the Company have changed hands and been acquired by new shareholders since Mr.
Ratcliffe became involved" includes the acquisition of 28.7% of the ordinary
shares by the concert party.

[model635] 03/3/2009 13:34

Is this the quiet before the storm?

[model635] 03/3/2009 08:06

I notice that our bully boys have set the EGM for 9 a.m to try to avoid a face to face meeting with angry shareholders.They truly are a pathetic shower of individuals, like most bullies they hate anyone who stands their ground.I guess they'll already know tomorrow's result and Port will be busy drafting some meaningless dribble.

[kooba] 02/3/2009 19:11

well said chrismez..unfortunately they are determined to do us the favour of investing our money in speculative small company technology stocks whether we like it or not....they know best....thats why they are taking such big fees from the company for the privilage....ain't we the lucky ones.

[chrismez] 02/3/2009 19:02

If I had wanted to invest in an Investment Trust specialising in Technology Firms, I could have invested in a specialised Venture Capital Trust with proven experience and a track record and furthermore I would have been able to take advantage of the tax relief available for such investments. Alternatively, there are plenty of ETF's available covering various sectors and providing exposure to a basket of companies in any one sector ie. Technology.

Port doesn't have one single day's worth of experience of running and operating such a Fund / Investment Trust/ VCT - nor does he have any experience of the technology sector.

In those circumstances how on earth could he possibly find Ratcliffe's proposal in December "compelling" - he knows diddly about the technology sector or about investing in it. Dress it up any way you want to but what he is essentially owning up to is the fact that he was duped. And he has to do that because the only other possible explanation is that he was pressured, forced and coerced into accepting Ratty's proposal. Lesser of the two evils I guess.

Oh and by the way Mr. Port those very same macro-economic conditions that you talk of - well guess what ... they've become somewhat worse (!!!) since December when you apparently found Ratty's proposal so compelling.

In light of the fact that those macro-economic conditions have fallen off a cliff perhaps you'd be good enough now to abandon this Investment Trust idea in the same way that you abandoned the special dividend.

[model635] 02/3/2009 16:41

Port has nothing but contempt for the small shareholder, he obviously feels above being questioned on his motives.

[kooba] 02/3/2009 10:07

afraid a bit late to let newly motivated holders get their proxy's in.

mr port says some strange things..."find themselves looking down the barrel of an investment trust"...and he is recommending that??

previously...if you don't like it sell...thanks mr port for protecting the interests of all shreholders!!

as for change of strategy i have spoken to two executive directors who both said post dec 15th that the new startegy was forced on them by ratcliffe thay were quite happy with their existing startegy but were threatened with a quick general meeting that would have ousted them [in their and their asdvisors view]...mr port is being very misleading with strategy change...but he gets a payoff and stays on the board....well done mr port thats one small shareholder you looked after.....yourself!
December 2007 in the shares of the Company were as
follows:
31 December 2007 1 January 2007
Ordinary shares Ordinary shares
of 25p each of 25p each
D C Port 6,000

[model635] 02/3/2009 09:55

Thanks Kooba

[kooba] 02/3/2009 09:51

there you go!

City: Aim Market:

Shareholders revolt over planned changes at GNE

By Peter Taylor

832 words

2 March 2009

The Daily Telegraph


(c) 2009 Telegraph Group Limited, London

IT ISN'T difficult to appreciate why there's consternation in the shareholder ranks at GNE Group. Rarely does a listed company morph so dramatically in the space of just a few months.

If the new guard among GNE's major investors has its way, the Aim-listed business will change not only its name but its strategy, its sector, its executive line-up and even its investment status after a general meeting in London this Wednesday.

The company that for all intents and purposes was a pure-play petrol retailer six months ago would, with the backing of the existing management, become an activist investment trust devoted to buying into and shaking up underperforming technology firms.

Gone would be the ambition for GNE, which sold most assets for a handsome profit in September, to repeat its success of the last three years, gradually building a stable of premium petrol stations with the objective of later cashing in on their growing scarcity value. And the 150p-a-share special dividend promised to investors in October, only to be pulled two months later, would be off the agenda once and for all.

It is this development in particular that has given rise to a shareholder revolt of unusually heated extremes for a company on the junior market.

In an economic climate where cash is again king and speculation has lost much of its mid-noughties lustre, the rebellion probably shouldn't have come as a surprise to GNE management. In hindsight, it is surely regretting the offer of a tantalising cash handback.

Led by executive chairman David Port, the group once known as Global Natural Energy was sitting on pounds 36m in cash after selling its main subsidiary - a chain of about 60 BP, Texaco and Esso-branded petrol stations - in September.

It had proposed to return the lion's share, about pounds 21m, to shareholders through the 150p special dividend: an unquestionably impressive distribution for a group whose shares were trading below 100p six months earlier.

The plan was shelved in December after a leading Russian shareholder and some fellow investors sold holdings in GNE totalling more than 20pc. A new group of investors led by British technology veteran Martyn Ratcliffe, chairman of Microgen, and former chief of Dell Europe, then swooped, snapping up 28.7pc of the company and winning management backing for its bold plan.

Mr Ratcliffe was immediately appointed to the board.

His adversary is Keith Moss, a private investor leading the action group fighting GNE's seismic strategic shift by writing to some 6,000 private shareholders ahead of Wednesday's meeting.

The action group accuses the new shareholders of hijacking the company and derailing the special dividend payment. "It was totally out of the blue,'' Mr Moss says. "I and other shareholders were absolutely furious and aghast. The early proposal had been passed by shareholders by a big majority.''

"People in these times want cash. If people want to invest in a technology company, give them the cash and they can choose to do that.''

Mr Port, who will become a non-executive director under the new plan and vacate the executive chairman position for Mr Ratcliffe, argues that macro economic conditions changed dramatically between September and December, undermining GNE's original plan.

He says there were "three prongs'' to the decision to abandon it. Declining interest rates and credit availability meant the company would burn cash while struggling to acquire debt to buy petrol station sites, the shareholder base had changed substantially, and Mr Ratcliffe's strategy was compelling, particularly in the context of the cheap share prices of some promising technology firms.

"We decided it would be only fair to offer it [the Ratcliffe proposal] to shareholders to vote on,'' Mr Port says. "I think the smaller shareholders probably felt comfortable investing in an energy play and now find themselves looking down the barrel of an investment trust, which is not something they are used to. So I'm expecting some resistance but we'll just have to wait to see how big it turns out to be.''

John Cowie, head of Aim at accountancy and financial advisory firm Smith & Williamson, says that such dramatic strategic changes are rare among listed companies, "yet there have been a number of businesses over the years that have sold out all of their operating activities and ended up as cash shells, then had other businesses which are totally unlike them reversing into them''.

He adds that boards are legally obliged to thoroughly assess genuine approaches and, where they see merit, give investors the final say.

"You will always end up with some people for whom a new policy is not appropriate and the way that matters manifest themselves is the way the vote goes. If a majority of people don't believe it's worthwhile, then the majority of people will vote against it.''

[model635] 02/3/2009 09:42

Can anybody post the Telegraph piece?

[giovannina] 02/3/2009 09:26

this week will be an important one that's for sure but I feel it wont be the end of it,I dont think we will reach a straight cut resolution one way or another I got the gut feeling this will drag on and on .........lets hope I am totally wrong and GNE decided to return all the cash to shareholders......I am dreaming again...

[kooba] 02/3/2009 07:58

piece in telegraph today i'm told...haven't had a chance to get paper yet and can't find it on line yet.