NEW YORK, July 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Lone Star Value
Investors, LP ("Lone Star Value") owns 7% of Antares Energy Limited
("Antares") (ASX: AZZ) (AZZEF) and is seeking to upgrade and
enhance Antares' Board through the election of five new independent
directors and the removal of two employee directors at a General
Meeting of Antares scheduled for July 22,
2014. Lone Star Value today issued a statement questioning
recent share trading activity by Antares' Chairman and CEO,
James Cruickshank, in the days
immediately preceding the announcement of Antares' planned asset
sale in June of last year.
According to public disclosure, on June
18, 19, 20, and 24 of last year, Mr. Cruickshank purchased
in the open market a total of 125,000 Antares' shares at prices
ranging between $0.30 and $0.325 per
share. On June 26, 2013, only two
days after the last of these trades, Antares publicly announced its
plans to sell all its assets at a large premium to the value
implied by Antares' stock price. On the day of this announcement,
Antares' stock price closed at $0.48,
up 71% from the prior day's close of $0.28.
Australian securities laws prohibit individuals from trading in
securities while in possession of material non-public information
related to such securities. Furthermore, Antares maintains a
Security Trading Policy which expressly prohibits key management
personnel, including the Chairman and CEO, from buying, selling, or
otherwise dealing in securities of the Company while in possession
of information that is not generally available to the public and
can be expected to have a material effect on the price or value of
the Company's securities.
Jeff Eberwein, founder of Lone
Star Value and candidate to the Antares Board stated "We have
reviewed Antares' security trading policy and applicable Australian
securities laws and, in the absence of a proper explanation from Mr
Cruickshank, we believe that Mr. Cruickshank's purchases in the
week before the asset sale announcement likely violate all. It is
hard to imagine the Chairman and CEO of Antares was not aware of
the planned asset sale two days prior to its public announcement.
Accordingly, when Mr. Cruickshank purchased shares before the price
jumped by more than 70%, he appears to have used his position to
personally benefit from Company information. This is the very
definition of self-dealing and the precise reason why insider
trading laws and policies are adopted in the first place – to
protect the investing public from being taken advantage of by
better informed corporate executives. In the absence of a proper
and fulsome justification for his conduct, Mr. Cruickshank appears
to have used his knowledge and position to his advantage at the
expense of common shareholders who did not have the same
market-moving information he had."
"We expect that in accordance with its responsibility to
shareholders, the Board would have completed an investigation of
Mr. Cruickshank's recent trading activity and will immediately
release publicly the results of this investigation. We also demand
that the Board immediately let shareholders know whether any
related inquiries or investigations have been launched by any
government authorities. Shareholders should know all the facts as
well as what disciplinary action the Board plans to take (if any)
before they cast their vote on the election of directors at the
general meeting."
Lone Star Value urges all Antares shareholders to read carefully
the materials that Lone Star Value has mailed and may continue to
mail to them as those materials contain important
information. Lone Star Value called on all Antares
shareholders to vote on its blue and white proxy card to improve
the Board of Antares.
For further information please visit our website,
www.antaresvalue.com.au, or call our shareholder information line,
1300 889 468 (from within Australia) or +61 2 8022 7902 (from outside
Australia).
Proxy voting enquiries please contact:
Australia:
Murray Williams
GPS
+61 2 8022 7911
MWilliams@gpsproxy.com.au
USA:
John Grau
InvestorCom
203-972-9300 x11
Jgrau@investor-com.com
Media enquiries please contact:
John Hurst
Cannings Corporate Communications
+61 418 708 663
SOURCE Lone Star Value Investors, LP