The share price of natural gas and helium producer Renergen surged 25% in early trade on Monday after it issued a statement to answer some of the questions raised by activist shareholder Albie Cilliers and acknowledged that its initial response was “inappropriate” and that it needs to “do better”.
The share price of the company, valued at about R1.5bn on the JSE, fell more than a quarter over the past week after Cilliers asked if the company was being honest with investors.
Cilliers also asked why CEO Stefano Marani and co-founder Ryan Otto had been reducing their stake in the company established in 2014, and pointed out that Trillian, an advisory firm linked to the Guptas that benefited from state capture, was its sponsor when it listed in 2015.
On October 6, Renergen said in a statement that the negativity on social media “acted as a catalyst to place downward pressure” on its share price and described it as “opportunistic attacks”, but said on Monday that it should have spoken to Cilliers directly.
Financial Mail reported last week that Cilliers also pointed how Trillian and its service provider Integrated Capital Management (ICM) — both of which were mentioned in Raymond Zondo’s state capture report — were the joint lead arrangers for Renergen’s listing, after listing ICM founder Clive Angel acted as Renergen’s finance director and that at one point Trillian held up to 24% of Renergen’s stock on behalf of investors.
Marani told Financial Mail that the criticism is a “distortion and fabrication” and that ICM “were the initial book runners for our listing and were never part of our business in any real sense … they were just our advisers, and advisers to many other ongoing capital markets deals at the time”.
Sold interest
The company said on Monday that Trillian Asset Management was acquired by Trillian Capital Partners a few months after Renergen listed in 2015 and that since then “there are and have been no further links between Renergen and these companies”.
Cilliers also posted documents that show Otto may have sold his interest and Kigeni Energy, which was started by Marani in 2009, which at one point held up to a 20% stake in Renergen, now holds no shares.
Cilliers told Financial Mail that it seems the shareholders were unaware this was going on and that if the “founders are reducing their interest without telling anyone, that’s a serious issue they ought to be aware of”.
Marani rejected this, but said Otto “sold some stock” and said on Monday that apart from a single donation to direct family members, Marani has not sold any stock, and increased their position.
Regarding Kigeni, he said Clade, the company’s fund management arm, bought stock in 2015 and sold all of its shares in 2017, but that he had already resigned from Kigeni when it bought the shares.
According to Renergen’s latest statement, Kigeni was a minority shareholder in Clade, which invested in Renergen when it listed, but that there “was no direct or indirect link between Stefano Marani and Clade at the time of thee investment” as Marani resigned from Kigeni in 2014.
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