Hints and tips:
...Two former executives of the failed oil exploration company Afren have been sentenced to a total of 30 years of jail time for fraud and money laundering offences....
...Afren was once a highly regarded FTSE 250 group with a market valuation at its height of more than $2.6bn....
...A second advance payment of $300m followed in 2012, paid by Afren to Oriental in two tranches....
...Mr Gibson — who led high-profile cases involving the Kazakh mining company ENRC and the collapsed oil exploration group Afren while at the SFO — will provide valuable inside experience of how the agency...
...The civil claim involves administrators Alix Partners and Afren, which collapsed amid the scandal and a falling oil price, suing the pair along with Oriental Energy, Afren’s Nigerian partner, and Alhaji...
...Afren’s board fired them in October 2014 for gross misconduct....
...Osman Shahenshah, 55, Afren’s former chief executive, faces two counts of fraud by abuse of position....
...The number of small oil and gas producers has shrunk since the oil price crash, as companies such as Afren, the Africa-focused explorer that was listed in London, collapsed....
...Afren is not the only company to build up an impressive art collection, only to have to sell it after going bust....
...Afren’s string of bad news was becoming longer....
...Referring to the London-listed oil company that called in administrators last year, Mr Ferrier said: “We are not another Afren.”...
...So was Afren....
...Four Afren board members had already left since the group’s last annual meeting....
...On the main market, the largest small-cap casualty was Afren, the scandal-hit oil explorer that collapsed into administration in August....
...Like many of its peers, Afren has been hit hard by the sharp fall in global oil prices....
...Shareholders may question whether the plan for Afren’s future is so bright, too....
...God bless Egbert Imomoh, who has announced he will stand down as chairman of troubled African oil group Afren....
...travel and accommodation expenses connected to Afren’s activities”....
...However, last month Afren reached an agreement with lenders on a recapitalisation plan for the company....
...Nigerian oil and gas players, Oando and Lekoil, were also developing proposals to inject capital into Afren, according to people familiar with their plans....
...In January, Afren said it needed to raise at least £200m in new equity to repair its battered balance sheet....
...Afren’s shares sank almost 27 per cent to 6.6p following the announcement on Wednesday....
...Fears about the fallout from oil’s recent plunge left Afren among the sharpest fallers on Wednesday. Afren lost 5.7 per cent to 39.4p after Oriel Securities downgraded to “sell”....
...Afren, the London-listed oil and gas explorer, abandoned takeover talks with Seplat, just hours ahead of a deadline for the Nigerian oil operator to make a formal offer....
...In addition, Afren said it would make use of a 30-day grace period for making $15m of interest payments due on February 1....
International Edition