LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alpha Blue Ocean Advisors Inc. (“Alpha Blue Ocean”), an alternative investment firm specialising in providing innovative financial solutions for publicly listed entities, has expressed grave concern about the blocking of conversion rights by the management of Norwegian firm Element ASA (“Element). Alpha Blue Ocean is investment manager of the European High Growth Opportunities Securitization Fund (“EHGO”), an entity holding shares in Element.
Under the Issuance Agreement EHGO has the right to convert Notes into Shares in Element. Element's management have refused to act on a conversion notice by EHGO which would have undertaken this and granted additional voting rights in the company.
Pierre Vannineuse, the founder of Alpha Blue Ocean, said, “Element's management have cited spurious grounds for their action which have no basis in Norwegian law. We take this breach of the Issuance Agreement extremely seriously. It is clearly an attempt by Element's management and board to deny shareholders voting rights and to improperly entrench themselves as they face greater shareholder scrutiny and concern about their mismanagement of the firm.
"Indeed, the timing of this breach by Element and its management speaks for itself, as it comes as we propose the replacement of two current Element board members with extremely well-qualified candidates ahead of Element's Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on August 19th.
"Other shareholders in Element may judge for themselves what this says about the standards of corporate governance in Element and the grave ethical questions it raises about the activities of the firm's management. We are confident that other shareholders will also express their concerns at the EGM on the 19th."
Notes to editors
About Alpha Blue Ocean
Alpha Blue Ocean was founded by Pierre Vannineuse and is the investment manager to a family of funds operating across multiple jurisdictions. Alpha Blue Ocean specialises in providing flexible, innovative and non-invasive debt and equity financing to publicly listed companies across the world and in a variety of sectors including healthcare, energy, mining and technology. Alpha Blue Ocean's main representation office is based in London, UK.
