LPP Lapp Plats

 

TIDMLPP 
 
RNS Number : 8423S 
Lapp Plats Plc 
27 May 2009 
 

 
 
27 May 2009 
 
 
 
 
Lapp Plats plc 
 
 
Board Changes, New Oil and Gas Strategy, 
Change of Name, Appointment of Nomad 
 
 
  *  appointment of Michael Blaha as Non-Executive Chairman 
  *  appointment of John Craven as Chief Executive Officer 
  *  roll out of new oil and gas strategy 
  *  change of name to Cove Energy plc ("Cove Energy") 
  *  appointment of Cenkos Securities as Nominated Adviser and Broker 
 
 
 
Lapp Plats plc, an AIM quoted, UK registered public company ("Lapp Plats", "the 
Company" or "Cove Energy") is pleased to announce a number of transformational 
developments in the Company. 
 
 
Board Changes 
Further to the Company's stated intention since achieving its AIM quotation in 
May 2005 of formalising an oil and gas division, and following dedicated work by 
the Board of Directors ("Board") during the course of the past 18 months, Lapp 
Plats is pleased to announce today that Michael Blaha, currently Country 
Chairman for Shell in Algeria, is joining the Board as Non-Executive Chairman 
and John Craven, founder and until recently CEO of Petroceltic International 
plc, is joining as Chief Executive Officer.  Both of these Board appointments 
will take effect immediately. 
 
 
Tom O'Gorman, the Company's current Non-Executive Chairman, will continue on the 
Board as a Non-Executive Director.  Brian Barrett, a founding Director, is 
stepping down from the Board and retiring as Company Secretary. The Board 
expresses its sincere appreciation to Brian for his work and commitment to the 
Company since its formation in 2003. Michael Nolan will act as Company Secretary 
going forward. 
 
 
Michael Blaha (54), is a Petroleum Engineer with twenty nine years industry 
experience, his entire career spent working in the Royal Dutch Shell Group 
("Shell"). He is currently Country Chairman for Shell in Algeria, prior to which 
he held the positions of Director External Relations for EP Africa from 
2003-2005, Vice President EP for Russia (Salym, Sakhalin) from 2001 to 2003 and 
Vice President Iran (Soroosh and Nowrooz) from 1998 to 2001.  Earlier in his 
Shell career he worked at the Shell head offices in The Hague from where he 
developed business in China, Iran and Russia. He has also held senior roles in 
the Philippines, Syria, Thailand and the UK. 
 
 
Mr Blaha has an MSc in Chemistry from Universiteit van Amsterdam. 
 
 
John Craven (59) is a petroleum geologist with thirty five years experience in 
senior technical and commercial roles in upstream oil and gas exploration and 
production companies. Prior to joining Lapp Plats, he was founder and Chief 
Executive of AIM and IEX quoted, African and Mediterranean focussed, exploration 
company, Petroceltic International plc ("Petroceltic"). Petroceltic grew under 
his direction and stewardship to a business with a diversified portfolio of 
exploration and appraisal projects in Italy, Algeria and Tunisia. 
 
 
In addition to the above, John brings with him a deep understanding of the 
investment community and a solid reputation earned following 35 years of 
delivery to shareholders. 
 
 
Mr Craven has an MSc in Petroleum Geology from the Royal School of Mines in 
London and an MBA from Queens University in Belfast. 
 
 
Prior to Petroceltic, he held senior management and Director roles in a number 
of quoted and private oil companies including Gulf Oil, Dana Petroleum and Vanco 
Energy. 
 
 
Oil and Gas Strategy 
Cove Energy's strategy is to identify and acquire oil and gas assets in the 
early phase of the upstream life-cycle and mature them into marketable 
opportunities for the medium and larger oil and utility companies. The Company's 
initial focus will be on Africa and the Mediterranean. The Company will be 
"opportunity driven" but the objective is to target assets in areas where larger 
oil companies are not yet active or have overlooked opportunities. Cove Energy 
will also seek out assets owned by companies in distress as a result, for 
instance, of the current global economic climate. 
 
 
The Company intends to operate with a minimum level of staffing but with a 
larger experienced "virtual" skills-pool from where it can draw on relevant 
experience on a case-by-case basis. The Company intends at the outset to partner 
and joint venture with investors and associates who will support Cove Energy 
with commercial skills and influence in areas where the Company intends to 
grow its business. 
 
 
The strategy will be implemented and driven jointly by John Craven and Michael 
Blaha. A management team commensurate with the escalating requirements of the 
business is being assembled and further appointments will be confirmed over the 
coming months. 
 
 
The Company continues to hold the existing Swedish mineral licence in good 
standing, without significant financial obligations, and the Company will look 
to commercialise the mineral assets of Lapp Plats AB in due course. 
 
 
The Company has maintained a core treasury, in excess of GBP1 million, since 
late 2006. The Directors are aware that investments in new projects will require 
additional capital and funding options will be continually monitored by the 
Board, in tandem with the development of the new strategy. 
 
 
Change of Name 
The Directors will propose to shareholders at the forthcoming Annual General 
Meeting of the Company that the Company changes its name to Cove Energy plc. The 
Notice and resolutions in respect of this Annual General Meeting will be 
dispatched shortly along with the Annual Report and Accounts for the financial 
year ended 31 December 2008. The Directors plan that the Annual General Meeting 
will be held in late June or early July. 
 
 
Appointment of new Nominated Adviser and Broker 
The Board are pleased today to announce the appointment of Cenkos Securities plc 
as its AIM Nominated Adviser and Broker with immediate effect. 
 
 
The Company is a UK registered company and, with the appointment of a UK based 
Nominated Adviser and Broker, the Board has requested that the Irish Stock 
Exchange cancel the admission of the Company's ordinary shares to trading on the 
IEX Market with effect from 26 June 2009. The Company's Ordinary Shares will 
continue to be traded on the AIM Market. 
 
 
Substantial Shareholder Notification 
The Company was notified on 25 May 2009 of the following interests in the 
Company's ordinary shares: 
 
 
+--------------------------+---------------------------------------------+ 
|     John Craven          |                          1,750,000 (7.50%)  | 
+--------------------------+---------------------------------------------+ 
|     Dermot Corcoran      |                          1,750,000 (7.50%)  | 
+--------------------------+---------------------------------------------+ 
 
 
Information on Frantisek Michael Josef Blaha 
 
 
+-----------------------------------+------------------------------------+ 
|                                   |                                    | 
+-----------------------------------+------------------------------------+ 
| Current directorships             | Past directorships (in the last 5  | 
|                                   | years)                             | 
+-----------------------------------+------------------------------------+ 
| Shell Somalia BV.                 | Sakhalin Energy Investment Company | 
| Shell Marketing Algerie SPA       | Ltd                                | 
| Groupement Shell Algerie          | Pecten Cameroon Inc.               | 
| (Groupement)                      |                                    | 
|                                   |                                    | 
+-----------------------------------+------------------------------------+ 
 
 
Mr. Blaha has no interest in any shareholding (including interests of connected 
parties) in the share capital of the Company. 
 
 
Information on John Edward Craven 
 
 
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ 
|                                    |                                    | 
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ 
| Current directorships              | Past directorships (in the last 5  | 
|                                    | years)                             | 
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ 
| None                               | Petroceltic International plc      | 
|                                    |                                    | 
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ 
 
 
Mr Craven has an interest in 1,750,000 ordinary shares representing 7.5% of the 
share capital of the Company. 
 
 
There are no other details specified by schedule 2 paragraph (g) of the AIM and 
IEX Rules to be disclosed in relation to either Mr Blaha or Mr Craven. 
 
 
Commenting on the Board appointments and roll out of the oil and gas strategy, 
Tom O'Gorman, outgoing Chairman and continuing Non-Executive Director commented: 
 
 
"I am very pleased to welcome Michael and John to the Board of the Company. 
Michael Blaha, with a long and successful career with Shell will provide 
invaluable stewardship and industry presence as we work to build an agile, 
entrepreneurial and focussed oil and gas entity. John Craven has shown a unique 
ability to identify, assess and secure highly attractive oil and gas exploration 
acreage and opportunities, on very favourable terms, throughout his career and I 
believe that this ability together with his extensive industry experience and 
contact base will drive Cove Energy forward.With such a high class team on 
Board, we are in a very good position to take advantage of the significant 
opportunity that currently exists within the oil and gas upstream arena." 
 
 
John Craven, newly appointed CEO said: 
 
 
"I am delighted to have joined the Company and have a clear strategy to add 
value to shareholders. The team is well networked in the oil and gas industry 
and we are already aware of a number of assets which will become available to us 
in the near term.  I believe that there are unprecedented opportunities 
currently available in the sector and with the pool of senior industry figures 
available to me and my colleagues we have the ambition to rapidly assemble a 
portfolio of projects and interests that will position Cove Energy as an 
outstanding organisation in the years and months ahead". 
 
 
 
 
For further information, please contact: 
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------+ 
| Lapp Plats plc                            |                            | 
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------+ 
| John Craven, CEO                          |      Tel: + 353 1 662 4351 | 
| Michael Nolan, Executive Director         |                            | 
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------+ 
 
 
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------+ 
| Cenkos Securities                         |                            | 
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------+ 
| Jon Fitzpatrick / Ken Fleming             |   Tel: +44 (0)131 220 6939 | 
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------+ 
 
 
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------+ 
| Financial Dynamics                        |                            | 
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------+ 
| Billy Clegg / Edward Westropp             |   Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 3113 | 
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------+ 
 
 
Note to Editors: 
 
 
Lapp Plats plc is an AIM quoted natural resources company. It was founded in 
2003 to secure and advance platinum group metal projects in Sweden and over the 
past 24 months it has been active in expanding its area of activity into the oil 
and gas sector. 
 
 
 
 
 
This information is provided by RNS 
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange 
   END 
 
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