Cobalt Energy finally pays out to ex-shareholders

摘要

After years of legal wrangling, the marathon Cobalt International Energy saga is nearing an end. Accused of failing to disclose a conflict of interests in Angola in 2010, the US firm was ordered in 2019 to pay out $173.8m to a number of its former investors (AI, 26/02/19). In a letter dated 18 May addressed to the Southern District court of Texas, the lawyer Andrew Entwistle of Entwistle & Cappucci, who has been representing the main plaintiff, the asset management firm GAMCO, indicated that an initial instalment of $114.4m was paid out on 22 April to some 6,000 plaintiffs whose claims had been upheld by the court. Cobalt was accused of failing to disclose that its partner in the country, Nazaki Oil & Gas, was in part controlled by Angola's former vice president Manuel Vicente. This information was made public in 2012 and prompted an investigation by US prosecutors, leading to a collapse in Cobalt's share price and ultimately to its bankruptcy in 2017. The ex-shareholders also claim that the firm exaggerated the value of its Loengo (block 9) and Lontra (block 20) wells to persuade them to invest (AI, 15/11/16).