shareholders v beach

Artesian chief quits after Beach snub

November 25, 2006 01:15am

GREAT Artesian Oil and Gas managing director Ray Shaw has resigned after 19.9 per cent shareholder Beach Petroleum said yesterday it was not in favour of him continuing beyond the end of December.

However, a shareholder group has been formed to fight the move and get Dr Shaw back on the board, along with two other independent directors.

The Great Artesian Shareholder Group (GAS Group) has been formed by shareholder Greg Plummer who said yesterday Dr Shaw had done a good job and his resignation would give effective control to Beach.

As part of a share-sale agreement under which Dr Shaw was paid 50c per share for part of his stake in Great Artesian, he agreed to step down as managing director and a director before December 31.

Three Beach appointees joined the board as part of the June deal, which cost $14.5 million in total. Beach, which had the discretion to re-appoint Dr Shaw, has decided not to do so.

Beach managing director Reg Nelson said after the company's annual meeting on Thursday that the company was not entirely comfortable with the way Great Artesian was being managed.

"Particularly we could see some great opportunities for some new gas discoveries along the western flank of the Patchawarra Trough in the Cooper Basin and we thought there was perhaps not quite enough focus from our perspective on that," Mr Nelson said. Dr Shaw could not be contacted yesterday.

Mr Nelson said on Thursday there was a great opportunity to work in an alliance with Great Artesian, but would not be drawn on whether Beach, which has the maximum shareholding possible without launching a takeover bid, would try to clean up the rest of the company's shares.

www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,20816138-913,00.html