A Ukrainian tycoon will on Thursday move to oust two top bosses of JKX Oil Gas, a London-listed natural resources group.
Sky News understands that Eclairs Group, a vehicle of Igor Kolomoisky, will publish an open letter seeking broader shareholder support to remove Paul Davies and Peter Dixon, JKX’s chief executive and commercial director.
Citing the company’s “ongoing poor performance, management failures [and] lack of strategic direction”, Eclairs is attempting to secure their removal at the annual meeting on June 5.
Eclairs, which holds a 27pc stake in JKX, lodged an earlier attempt to requisition an extraordinary general meeting in March but was rejected by the company on the grounds that the request was invalid.
Thursday’s letter will return JKX to the list of public companies under siege from activist shareholders, a trend which is far more common in the US.
JKX’s share price has slumped to the point where the company now has a market value of just over £100m, against as much as eight times that level several years ago.
It floated in 1995 under the leadership of Sir Robert Horton, the former boss of BP. Operating mainly in Eastern European markets such as Russia and Ukraine, it has been beset by production difficulties.
Eclairs is also seeking to block the remuneration report at next month’s AGM, and is understood to have the backing of Glengary Overseas, which holds 11.45pc of JKX.
The investor group is in the process of becoming a fully-registered shareholder, according to the open letter, a copy of which has been seen by Sky News.
Eclairs has nominated candidates to succeed Mr Davies and Mr Dixon but will say tomorrow that it is “completely open to the recruitment of the best-qualified candidates internationally”.
Mr Kolomoisky has been in the headlines recently after becoming embroiled in a legal battle in London with Victor Pinchuk, the former Ukrainian politician.