07-27-2016, 10:50 AM
InterOil Corp. founder and former Chief Executive Officer Phil Mulacek is back out swinging at the management team that replaced him three years ago.
After a failed effort last month to wrest control of InterOil’s board and derail an earlier acquisition offer, Mulacek on Tuesday urged U.S. and Canadian regulators to investigate share purchases by several directors during the first quarter, when competing bids from Exxon Mobil Corp. and Oil Search Ltd. were underway.
The directors were in possession of potentially market-moving “material, nonpublic information” when they made the stock trades, Mulacek wrote in a presentation that accompanied a conference call he hosted to raise his concerns. On a slide headlined “something smells rotten,” he pointed to public disclosures of purchases by board members.
“We believe the Alberta or Ontario Securities Commission and the New York Stock Exchange should review the facts in this matter to determine whether potential securities law violations occurred,” Mulacek wrote.
An outside spokesman for InterOil declined to comment or make available the company’s directors for comment. The Ontario Securities Commission and Alberta Securities Commission did not respond to calls seeking comment. A spokeswoman for the New York Stock Exchange declined to comment.
‘Personal’ Dynamic
Mulacek, who founded InterOil in the 1990s and led it until he stepped down in 2013, remains the company’s third-largest holder with a 5.35 percent stake. The conference call he conducted with investors and analysts to highlight his objections to the offer Exxon announced last week was his latest salvo in a long-running war to regain influence in an entity he once hoped would export billions of dollars in liquefied natural gas to Asia.
“Like a lot of founders who did not have a very happy outcome, I think it’s readily apparent that he has some difficulties accepting the new management team and the decisions they have made,” Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James Financial Inc. who has the equivalent of a “hold” rating on InterOil shares, said of Mulacek’s relationship with InterOil management. “It’s not just the financial -- there’s clearly a personal dynamic here.”
After a failed effort last month to wrest control of InterOil’s board and derail an earlier acquisition offer, Mulacek on Tuesday urged U.S. and Canadian regulators to investigate share purchases by several directors during the first quarter, when competing bids from Exxon Mobil Corp. and Oil Search Ltd. were underway.
The directors were in possession of potentially market-moving “material, nonpublic information” when they made the stock trades, Mulacek wrote in a presentation that accompanied a conference call he hosted to raise his concerns. On a slide headlined “something smells rotten,” he pointed to public disclosures of purchases by board members.
“We believe the Alberta or Ontario Securities Commission and the New York Stock Exchange should review the facts in this matter to determine whether potential securities law violations occurred,” Mulacek wrote.
An outside spokesman for InterOil declined to comment or make available the company’s directors for comment. The Ontario Securities Commission and Alberta Securities Commission did not respond to calls seeking comment. A spokeswoman for the New York Stock Exchange declined to comment.
‘Personal’ Dynamic
Mulacek, who founded InterOil in the 1990s and led it until he stepped down in 2013, remains the company’s third-largest holder with a 5.35 percent stake. The conference call he conducted with investors and analysts to highlight his objections to the offer Exxon announced last week was his latest salvo in a long-running war to regain influence in an entity he once hoped would export billions of dollars in liquefied natural gas to Asia.
“Like a lot of founders who did not have a very happy outcome, I think it’s readily apparent that he has some difficulties accepting the new management team and the decisions they have made,” Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James Financial Inc. who has the equivalent of a “hold” rating on InterOil shares, said of Mulacek’s relationship with InterOil management. “It’s not just the financial -- there’s clearly a personal dynamic here.”
