Gulfport Energy Decides to Cut Jobs and Stop Share Buybacks, Leaving Top Investor Angry
From Reuters:
And in another story from Reuters:
U.S. gas exploration and production company Gulfport Energy Corp (GPOR.O) on Monday confirmed that it would cut jobs, change its board and end its share buybacks, in a bid to reverse a slide in its stock price.
Reuters had reported the news earlier in the day, citing sources.
Gulfport shares, which fell 7.8% to $2.85 in morning trading, have lost about 67% of their market value in the last 12 months, as weak natural gas prices have eroded its profitability and forced it to slash capital investment.
Gulfport, whose production is focused primarily in the Utica Shale in Ohio and SCOOP acreage in Oklahoma, also made a new commitment to use excess cash to pay down debt, which totaled $2.1 billion as of the end of September.
The company said it would shed about 13% of its workforce. It also said that Chairman David Houston will not seek reelection to the company’s board when his term ends in 2020, with two other directors - Craig Groeschel and Scott Streller - stepping down from Gulfport’s board by the end of this year.Click here to read the whole article.
And in another story from Reuters:
Firefly Value Partners on Thursday asked Gulfport Energy for a seat on its board and criticized the “half-measures” which the U.S. gas exploration and production company is taking to improve its financial performance.
On Monday, Oklahoma City-based Gulfport announced job cuts, board changes and an end to its share buyback program to focus on debt repurchases, to help reverse a more than 65% slide in its share price over the last 12 months.
But Monday’s proposals failed to captivate investors who pushed the stock down further.
By Thursday, the New York-based hedge fund fired off a letter to the board in which it blamed the current directors for the company’s failures and said these people could not be entrusted to “clean up the mess they have made.”
“That is why we are asking that the board immediately fill one of the new director vacancies with a Firefly principal as a shareholder representative,” the letter said.Read on by clicking here.