It is not often that I have had a brush with a Board and feel I have been made love to, and leave the experience without having had to remove my trousers.
All four of the current Board should be replaced, and also the current MD. All posts should be filled with new faces.
Clearly there have been schisms, and poor execution, poor strategy and regardless of who is left standing and who is to blame, the reality is that new leadership and a new "face of CTP" is needed.
JH obviously has a huge history with the company, and has a role but it cannot be MD - regardless of whether he has done a good job or bad. It is in his interests as much as everyone else's that scorched earth is needed, but he should stay in an advisory role to the new Board for example on a paid stipend to provide continuity. I suspect he would be hugely frustrated at this, but I just don't think he can hang on to it.
The fact is his success in putting together a huge acreage was its own Achilles heel. Huge acreage means an MD is needed with a huge demonstrable history of success in developing huge acres for majors. If it was a tenth the size it wouldn't have mattered. Unfortunately it does matter.
There is no no doubt in my mind that the strategy of the three non-executive Board members was a hidden strategy of "keep it alive until we get taken over". Events just took way, way longer than they imagined hence the constant dilution,. They have been caught out by no real results. Hence they have to go.
If the current Board stays, the die is cast and they have the role of being the funding entities' lap dog, or Trojan horse. Remember their role is to act in the best interest of the company. The company is not you and me, its the entity called Central Petroleum Limited.
CTP Price at posting:
49.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
