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Pieridae Announces Voting Results Report Following Its Annual and Special Shareholder Meeting

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Pieridae Energy Limited
·3 min read
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(Section 11.3 of National Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations)

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR
DISSEMINATION IN UNITED STATES

CALGARY, Alberta, May 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pieridae Energy Limited (“Pieridae” or the “Company”) (PEA.TO) today announced that, in accordance with section 11.3 of National Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations, the Company released its Voting Results Report that briefly describes the matters voted upon and the outcome of the votes at the Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders (the “Meeting”) of Pieridae held on May 27, 2021 in a virtual-only format. Each of the matters acted upon at the Meeting is described below and in greater detail in the 2021 Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders and Management Information Circular dated April 16, 2021, a copy of which is available on SEDAR.

Matters to be Acted Upon:

1.

Number of Directors: By a resolution passed by ballot, the number of directors of the Company to be elected at the Meeting was approved at eight. Proxies were received in the matter as follows:


Votes For

Votes Against

Number

Percent

Number

Percent

64,413,666

99.91

57,103

0.09


2.

Election of Directors: By resolution passed by ballot, the following eight nominees were each elected as a director of the Company to serve until the next annual meeting of shareholders of the Company, or until their successors are elected or appointed. The results of the vote were as follows:


Nominee

Votes For

Votes Withheld

Number

Percent

Number

Percent

Myron A. Tétreault

64,389,506

99.87

81,263

0.13

Andrew Judson

64,249,014

99.66

221,755

0.34

Alfred Sorensen

64,403,146

99.90

67,623

0.10

Mark Horrox

64,402,939

99.89

67,830

0.11

Charles Boulanger

64,389,544

99.87

81,225

0.13

Kjell Pedersen

64,384,558

99.87

86,211

0.13

Charle Gamba

40,784,009

63.26

23,686,760

36.74

Kiren Singh

64,404,679

99.90

66,090

0.10


3.

Appointment of Auditors: By a resolution passed by ballot, Ernst & Young LLP was appointed as the auditors of the Company to hold office until close of the next annual meeting of shareholders of the Company. Proxies were received in the matter as follows:


Votes For

Percent

Votes Withheld

Percent

66,374,992

99.98

15,309

0.02


4.

Amended and Restated Stock Option Plan: By a resolution passed via ballot, the amended and restated stock option plan, as described in Schedule A attached to the Management Information Circular, was ratified, confirmed and approved. Proxies were received in the matter as follows:


Votes For

Votes Against

Number

Percent

Number

Percent

42,554,777

66.01

21,915,992

33.99

Following the Meeting, the board of directors approved the reorganization of its committees, including the establishment of a new Governance and ESG Committee, and a new Compensation and Nomination Committee, as well as revamping its Audit Committee and Reserves & HSE Committee. This decision to move from three to four committees reflects the Company’s increased focus on ESG matters, which will also be reflected as Pieridae is set to release its inaugural ESG Report in the next few weeks.

About Pieridae:
Founded in 2011, Pieridae, a majority Canadian-owned corporation based in Calgary, is focused on the development of integrated energy value chain activities, including the exploration, extraction, and processing of natural gas, NGLS, and condensate, development, construction, and operation of LNG facilities. After completion of all the transactions disclosed in this news release, Pieridae has 157,641,871 common shares issued and outstanding, which trade on the TSX (“PEA.TO”).

For further information please contact:

Alfred Sorensen, Chief Executive Officer

Rob Dargewitcz, Chief Financial Officer

Telephone: (403) 261-5900

Telephone: (403) 261-5900

James Millar, Director, External Relations

Telephone: (403) 261-5900


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With the global economic recovery still uneven, “the future is very unclear, so there is not much push to expand capacity,” he adds.The combination of higher input prices, uncertainty about export prospects and a weak recovery in domestic consumer demand meant Chinese manufacturing investment from January to April was 0.4% below the same period in 2019, according to official statistics (comparing to 2019 strips out the distortion of last year’s pandemic data).Due to the vast size of China’s manufacturing sector, that poses a risk both to the nation’s growth -- which is currently predicted to reach 8.5% in 2021, according to a Bloomberg tally of economists’ estimates -- and to a global economy that’s grappling with supply shortages and rising prices.Falling ProfitsWeaker-than-expected investment could have a “sizable” impact on GDP growth this year, said Citigroup Inc.’s China economist, Li-gang Liu. Lower investment may dent imports of capital goods and equipment from developed economies like Japan and Germany, “which in turn could drag their economic recovery and rebound as well,” he added.AnHui HERO Electronic Sci & Tec Co. Ltd. is one of those companies feeling the squeeze. Based in the eastern province of Anhui, the company manufactures capacitors used to make electronic circuits, with sales mainly in the domestic market. Jing Yuan, the founder, says orders are up as much as 30% year-on-year, but profits are down 50% due to increasing materials costs that are not easily passed onto clients.The company is under “huge cash pressure” as it needs to pay half a month in advance of delivery in order to secure copper and other metals, which they previously paid for months after receiving, he said. “The commodity issue has to be addressed by the government,” he added.What Bloomberg Economics Says...Chinese industry is absorbing significant cost pressures from rising commodity prices -- damping the inflationary impact for the rest of the world. Will it last? Our analysis of gross margins suggests it could for a while longer: downstream industries -- where the cost crunch is most severe -- still have a small cushion.David Qu, China economistFor the full report, click here.Input shortages mean some manufacturers aren’t able to make use of their existing facilities, so expansion would be of little use. Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio Inc. suspended production at one of its factories last month, due to a shortage of microchips.Modern Casting Ltd., which makes iron and steel products in Guangdong, issued a note to clients this month saying it would not be able to meet its current orders due to high raw material costs. A member of staff who answered the phone at the company’s office confirmed the note, but declined to give further details.Growth TransitionOn top of the higher input costs, Chinese companies face a bumpy transition toward domestic consumer spending to sustain its post-pandemic recovery.Exports, China’s strong-suit last year, may begin to slow as vaccine roll-outs cause consumers in wealthy countries to shift spending back to services. Meanwhile, the growth rate of Chinese consumer spending has yet to fully recover.Investment sentiment among Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises is below levels seen even in 2018-9 when uncertainties from the U.S.-China trade war were a brake on expansion plans, according to a regular survey of more than 500 Chinese companies by Standard Chartered Plc.“Demand is still mainly underpinned by exports, so domestic companies are aware that this is not sustainable,” said Standard Chartered’s China economist, Lan Shen.While some export-oriented sectors have been pushed to their limits, large amounts of slack remain for manufacturers targeting Chinese consumers due to subdued domestic demand.Retail sales growth was 4.3% in April on a two-year average basis, which strips out base effects from the pandemic, less than half pre-pandemic growth rates. Overall capacity use at China’s manufacturers fell to 77.6% in the first quarter from 78.4% in the previous three months, with the automotive sector hit hardest by overcapacity following three years of declining sales volumes.Even for electric vehicles whose sales are surging, most companies have already built their capacity and will now focus on incremental upgrades. “The majority of the investment has been done,” said Jochen Siebert of JSC Automotive Consulting.China ordered state-owned companies to expand last year, with their investment growth of 5.3% in 2020 from the prior year easily outstripping the 1% increase in private investment. But for a sustainable pick-up in investment, the market, not the state, needs to feel confident.Carsten Holz, an expert on Chinese investment statistics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, estimates that privately-owned companies have accounted for 87% of manufacturing investment in 2015, the most recent year of available data. They are more sensitive to input costs.“There is a pandemic plus insecurity about future trade given a new U.S. administration, neither of which is conducive to investment that relies on long-term growth prospects,” Holz said.Mixed PoliciesTransport bottlenecks are also a challenge for export-oriented manufacturers. Gordon Gao, who exports gardening products from China, said that he has had to reject 80% of orders this year due to port delays. In one case, an order placed before mid-February could only be shipped three months later when a client finally secured a container.Beijing has tried to improve conditions for private companies by ordering a crackdown on speculation to curb commodity prices and easing access to bank loans.Yet the government continues to gradually withdraw fiscal and monetary stimulus measures introduced amid the pandemic last year. It set a relatively unambitious target of “above 6%” growth for this year, and the Communist Party’s Politburo signaled last month it would prioritize reforms to control house prices and debt growth.“The policy stance has definitely shifted away from supporting growth and back toward de-risking the financial sector,” said Adam Wolfe, an economist at London-based Absolute Strategy Research. “The risks for economic growth seem tilted to the downside, especially for capital-intensive, construction-linked sectors.”For manufacturers such as Li, a longer period of domestic growth and control over input prices will be needed before capacity expansion is on the cards. While his company of 200 workers took on new permanent staff before the pandemic, for now he’d rather pass the risks of investment on to others.“I wouldn’t do that now, I would rather hire some temporary workers and outsource the rest,” he said.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • US STOCKS-Wall St rises as Fed officials soothe inflation worries

    Wall Street's main indexes rose marginally on Wednesday after remarks from the Federal Reserve helped ease worries about higher inflation, while a recent dip in bond yields supported heavyweight tech-related stocks for a third straight session. Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc added between 0.2% and 0.5%, as the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note stood at more than two-week lows of 1.557%. Higher yields pressure valuations for tech and other growth stocks, whose future cash flows are discounted at higher rates.

  • Gamestop, AMC short sellers lost $754 million after Tuesday's rally - Ortex

    Investors shorting meme stocks GameStop and AMC Entertainment are estimated to have lost $754 million on Tuesday alone as the shares rallied, data from financial analytics firm Ortex shows. Shares in GameStop, which was at the heart of the so-called "stonks" retail trading mania earlier this year, rose 8% to nearly $225 in U.S. premarket trading on Wednesday, a day after rising 18%. Shares in cinema operator AMC soared 39%.

  • AMC Defies Gravity as Retail Traders Propel Gains to 1,150%

    (Bloomberg) -- AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. capped its best trading session in four months, pushed higher by eager retail investors who celebrated vaulting the company’s market value to a record $13 billion on social media.Shares soared 36% to $26.52 as 691 million shares changed hands, in the busiest day since January for the Leawood, Kansas-based company. The four-day rally more than doubled its stock price, pushing its year-to-date gains to 1,150%.AMC’s revival has been fueled by individual investors eager to save the movie theater industry after it raised more than $1 billion in financing to avoid bankruptcy over recent months.Chief Executive Officer Adam Aron has embraced the Reddit-fueled rally and talked to new retail investors on conference calls. The stock has roughly tripled since AMC reported quarterly results on May 6, adding $9 billion in value. Thursday’s milestone stands out against a market value bottom of $216.8 million which was hit in April 2020.While Chad Beynon, an analyst with Macquarie Securities, is waiting for AMC to continue to shed debt and lease obligations before getting more constructive on shares, he acknowledged the mania individual investors can create.“The Reddit crowd is strong, the volumes have been off the charts lately, so there’s clearly demand that wasn’t there pre-Covid,” he said by phone. The company’s ability to raise cash at over $10 a share earlier in the month “marked the first time the company was able to financially benefit from the Reddit rally,” he said.The cash AMC has raised through the sales of hundreds of millions of additional shares is a key driver for the massive run-up in market value despite the stock actually trading down more than 25% from a 2015 peak. More than 490 million shares of AMC are currently available for trading, data compiled by Bloomberg show, almost ten-times the 52 million shares outstanding at the start of last year.More CapitalDebt tied to AMC has rallied alongside shares, setting new highs in recent days. The company’s bonds, which were trading at a low of 5 cents in November, are inching close to par, according to Trace trading data. That debt carries a hefty coupon of 12% for the notes due 2026.AMC’s bonds were among the top performers in the U.S. high-yield market on Thursday, extending gains from earlier in the week.The company said previously it might seek more financing, and some investors have suggested it sell more shares to pay down or look to refinance its more than $10 billion debt load.The cinema chain “will carefully examine the raising of additional capital in whatever form we think is most attractive” and is focused on de-leveraging, Aron said on a call to discuss fourth-quarter results in March.The company’s latest resurgence at the hands of individual investors has pushed the market value to more than double its April 2017 peak of $4.17 billion prior to this year’s trading. Put a different way, AMC has consistently added more than $1 billion in each of the last three sessions -- more than double its value at the start of the year.Mark-to-market losses for investors betting against the movie theater chain topped $1 billion this week alone, data compiled by S3 Partners shows.The movie theater company’s ability to post strong box office numbers as it reopens in key markets like New York and California will be important, B. Riley Securities analyst Eric Wold said by phone. Wold downgraded shares to neutral from buy on Wednesday citing valuation concerns.(Updates with details on shorts in second to last paragraph. A previous version corrected trading volume, company location in second paragraph.)More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Stocks Move Higher As Inflation Fears Subside

    S&P 500 futures are trying to settle back above the 4200 level.

  • Crypto Slide, Gaming Slowdown Wipe Billions Off Tycoon’s Fortune

    (Bloomberg) -- Kim Jung-ju, the billionaire behind Nexon Co., is having a turbulent month.Shares of the Tokyo-listed gaming company have plunged 21% since it forecast a decline in profit on May 12, suggesting its strong performance when the pandemic kept people indoors won’t be sustained as some countries reopen.That’s erased about $1.9 billion from the South Korean entrepreneur’s net worth, reducing his fortune to $8.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.On top of that, Kim’s diversification away from gaming into areas including cryptocurrency is facing obstacles. Bitcoin has dropped almost 38% since it rose to a record in April, a stark example of the swings in the prices of virtual coins that have left some mainstream investors skeptical.Kim, 53, has been an avid supporter of digital currencies, and has been acquiring cryptocurrency exchanges in recent years. Nexon also bought $100 million worth of Bitcoin last month.“It was bound to come down,” Matthew Kanterman, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, said of Nexon’s earnings forecast. “Last year was a high base and they are not going to replicate that,” he said. On Bitcoin, “corporations don’t like buying stuff with too much volatility,” he said, suggesting Nexon is unlikely to add to its purchase for now.Crypto InvestmentsEven before Nexon bought Bitcoin, Kim’s holding company NXC Corp., which owns almost half of Nexon, snapped up 65% of Korbit Inc., a crypto exchange in South Korea, in 2017.The following year, NXC’s subsidiary in Europe acquired another cryptocurrency exchange: Luxembourg-based Bitstamp.Korbit’s book value plunged to about 3.1 billion won ($2.8 million) at the end of last year from about 96 billion won at the end of 2017, according to NXC’s financial statements for 2017 and 2020. A spokesman for NXC said there’s no plan to sell the exchanges that it bought.Kim was also keen to acquire Bithumb, one of South Korea’s largest virtual currency exchanges, according to local media reports earlier this year. The NXC spokesman declined to comment.Kim declined to be interviewed for this story. Owen Mahoney, Nexon’s chief executive officer, wasn’t available for comment.The company pointed to Mahoney’s Medium post in April on the Bitcoin purchase. Nexon sees Bitcoin as a form of cash that’s likely to retain its value, he said. The Bitcoin purchase represents less than 2% of the firm’s cash and equivalents.“The technology underlying BTC and other cryptocurrencies is beginning to creep into many areas of day-to-day use, such as payments, digital collectibles and other areas that are increasingly relevant for companies like ours,” Mahoney wrote.Embracing CryptoOther big names in the gaming industry have also embraced cryptocurrencies and related blockchain technologies.Kakao Games Corp., a subsidiary of South Korea’s most popular mobile-messenger operator Kakao Corp., added to its holdings in blockchain technology company Way2Bit Co. last year, becoming the largest shareholder. Mobile game publisher Gamevil Inc. invested last month in crypto exchange Coinone Inc.“As finance and payment systems are quite important in games, developers are thinking of ways to integrate blockchain technology to improve what they have now,” said Lee Seung-hoon, an analyst at IBK Securities Co. in Seoul. “Their investments are more like R&D efforts at this stage.”Square Enix Holdings Co., the Japanese publisher of popular role-playing games such as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, was among the investors that injected $2 million in cash and cryptocurrency into Ethereum-based game developer TSB Gaming Ltd. in 2019.‘Significant Presence’“Games using blockchain are no longer in their infancy and are gradually coming to represent a more significant presence,” Yosuke Matsuda, the Japanese firm’s president, said in a New Year’s letter last year.Kim founded Nexon in South Korea in 1994 after majoring in computer science and engineering at Seoul National University. In 2011, Nexon listed in Japan.Two years ago, he considered selling his stake in the company, held through NXC, triggering discussions with major players including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Hillhouse Capital. He scrapped the plan when he couldn’t find a suitable buyer, according to local media reports.Nexon, famous for hit titles such as MapleStory and KartRider, posted net income attributable to its parent’s owners of 69.7 billion yen ($639 million) in the first six months of 2020 as lockdowns forced people to spend more time at home. For the same period this year, it forecast a range from 55 billion yen to 58.3 billion yen. The high end of the range would represent a 16% drop from last year.Kim said in a rare interview with South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo in 2012 that worrying about keeping up with new technological trends can even disrupt his sleep.“In order to survive, I have to accept new things,” Kim said.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.