Firefly Acknowledges Substantial Change at Gulfport Energy Corporation
02 June 2020 - 11:00PM
Business Wire
Having Achieved the Replacement of a Majority
of Gulfport’s Board, Firefly is Withdrawing its Director
Nominations Believes the Company has Terrific Assets and
Opportunities and the Board Needs to Convert those into Increased
Shareholder Value Will Continue to Monitor the Board to Ensure
Accountability and Performance
Firefly Value Partners, LP (together with its affiliates,
“Firefly”), which manages funds that, together with affiliates,
collectively beneficially own 13.1% of the outstanding common stock
of Gulfport Energy Corporation (“Gulfport” or the “Company”)
(Nasdaq: GPOR), today announced that it is withdrawing its
nomination of director candidates for election at the Company’s
2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Firefly issued the following
statement:
“We believe that our public and private engagement with Gulfport
over the past 18 months has been the catalyst for significant and
positive changes at the Company. Based on the announcement
yesterday that Gulfport would be including two additional new
nominees on its slate of directors, effective following the 2020
Annual Meeting Gulfport will have added five new directors since
the beginning of our engagement. For now, we are satisfied that the
Company has heard our concerns and has modified its Board
composition – including the retirement of four directors since the
2019 annual meeting – in response. On that basis, we are
withdrawing our director nominations.
We note, importantly, that this is the beginning of the hard
work for the Gulfport Board, not the end. The past Board at
Gulfport was a dilution machine. This refreshed Board has a chance
to turn the page and create shareholder value from the exceptional
assets and opportunities that Gulfport possesses. The Board must
work to restore shareholder confidence by allocating capital well,
holding management accountable and ensuring that accounting
controls and governance are robust.
As a result of low hydrocarbon prices, North American rigs and
natural gas production have fallen and will continue to decline
until prices rise substantially. At the same time, demand will
recover from current coronavirus-driven shocks. The result of this
supply-demand dynamic is an extraordinarily positive outlook for
natural gas in 2021 and 2022, especially for low-cost producers
such as Gulfport. The Company updated its production guidance this
morning; we are cautiously optimistic that the Company finally
appreciates these favorable tailwinds and is taking steps to
maximize its advantage and cash flow. With significant free cash
flow potential in a normalized natural gas price environment, no
debt maturity until December 2021 and no maturity of an indenture
until 2023, time is on the Company’s side. There is certainly no
reason for Gulfport to issue equity while the market fails to
recognize the Company’s value.
The Gulfport Board has been recast and now must prove itself.
Shareholders will not tolerate value-destructive mistakes, like the
ones that put the Company’s stock into a tailspin over the last
four years, and will continue to demand accountability for
Gulfport’s performance. All eyes are on Gulfport and its
Board.”
About Firefly Value Partners, LP
Founded in 2006, Firefly is an investment partnership focused on
fundamental primary research and business analysis. Firefly invests
with a long-term time horizon in a concentrated portfolio of deeply
undervalued companies.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200602005549/en/
Investors: John Ferguson / Joe Mills Saratoga Proxy
Consulting LLC 212-257-1311 jferguson@saratogaproxy.com /
jmills@saratogaproxy.com
Media: Dan Zacchei /
Joe Germani Sloane &
Company dzacchei@sloanepr.com / jgermani@sloanepr.com
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