Aegean Appoints New Board Members After Resolving Differences with Shareholder Group

Aegean and the Shareholder Group have reached agreement over their differences. File Image / Pixabay

Aegean Marine Petroleum Network's [NYSE:ANW] today said it has appointed three new board members after resolving its differences with a group of shareholders critical of the bunker supplier's current management and fall in share price.

In a spat that started in December last year, in January the group calling itself Committee for Aegean Accountability and led by Tyler Baron of Sentinel Rock Capital, formally nominated four independent candidates for election to Aegean's board.

Today, Aegean said three of those nominees - Baron, along with Raymond Bartoszek and Donald Moore - have been appointed to its Board of Directors effective immediately.

They will serve alongside Yiannis N. Papanicolaou, Spyridon Fokas, George J. Konomos and Konstantinos Koutsomitopoulos, bringing the number of independent directors to six.

A Consulting Agreement with Aegean founder Dimitris Melisanidis, whose ongoing involvement in the company following his exit in 2016 was another sticking point for the Shareholder Group, was said to have been terminated by the mutual consent of both parties.

Baron, along with Justin Moore and August Roth and represented as RBM Holdings LLC, had also successfully taken legal action against Aegean to block its proposed acquisition of Melisanidis' port services company Hellenic Environmental Center (HEC).

As part of today's developments, Aegean says the companies have now entered into a settlement agreement under which RBM has dismissed its litigation with prejudice as well as agreeing to certain limited standstill and voting provisions, including voting in favour of Aegean's proposed slate of directors at its 2018 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

"We are pleased to be part of a significant evolution of the board. The new board members look forward to working with their colleagues and management on delivering a strategic operating plan that focuses on value creation and brings Aegean into its next phase of growth and profitability," Baron and Moore said in a statement, speaking on behalf of RBM and The Committee for Aegean Accountability.

The full terms of the Settlement Agreement will be filed by Aegean with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Aegean added.

"We are pleased to welcome the new directors joining the Company's Board and the resolution of the litigation. We and RBM believe that Aegean's unique assets and strategic network are a strong foundation for future success," said Koutsomitopoulos, Aegean's Chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee.

Shares in Aegean initially popped some 20% following today's announcement.