Fourth sweep at Broome fails CBD Ben Butler

Efforts by shareholders to sweep Alan Broome from the boardroom for a fourth time have been stymied at Buccaneer Energy.

Chairman Broome (pictured) was one of a clutch of directors that a mystery group of shareholders tried to oust from the gold company's board late last month.

The shareholders - Singapore-based Republic Investment Management and two British Virgin Islands companies associated with Singapore's

Cheng family, but managed out of Hong Kong, Pacific Hill International and Harbour Sun Enterprises - requisitioned a meeting on March 20.

They wanted to purge Broome and directors Curtis Burton and Frank Culberson and appoint Nick Davies, Shaun Scott and Clinton Adams to the board. Davies is chairman and Scott is a non-executive director at Dart Energy.

Republic was behind dusting Broome at Endocoal last year. And before that, Broome was cleaned out at Jatenergy last May and Jupiter Mines in 2007, resigning as chairman after disagreements with shareholders.

Buccaneer Energy chucked out the meeting request on March 28, saying it was defective, the same day announcing it had appointed Canaccord Genuity to "advise the company on seeking strategic alternatives in respect to the company's assets".

Finance director Dean Gallegos told CBD the timing was a coincidence.

"We were actually thinking about this over the Christmas break," he said.

He said everything was on the table, from farm-in deals on individual projects to selling the entire company, in an effort to unlock value for shareholders.

Buccaneer has a market capitalisation of about $64 million but claims proven reserves at its oil and gas projects in Alaska and

the Gulf of Mexico are worth $342 million.

"We have been in a building phase for three years," Gallegos said. "We haven't had a lot of drilling in the ground, which the market likes to see."

He said the company had been unable to contact the rebel shareholders, including Republic's investment manager, Anwar Awan - who CBD could not reach.

"We're not the first company he's done this to," Gallegos said. "He has a history of stirring the pot."

New ball game

He kicked goals on the field and now former St Kilda and Gold Coast Suns AFL player Andrew McQualter will be hoping to do the same as a real estate agent.

The journeyman forward has been drafted by Resort Brokers Australia to flog businesses from Burleigh Heads to Coolangatta, working out of the company's Gold Coast office.

With Queensland's tourism business struggling because of a high dollar that makes a visit to Bali look more attractive than an outing to Dreamworld, perhaps pushing the Suns to a premiership might be an easier ask.

McQualter played 89 games for the Saints and five for the Suns. These days, he goes around with local team the Southport Sharks.

Sure, but it'll cost

It might belong to the federal government - and, therefore, the taxpayer - but it appears Medibank Private takes the "private" part of its name extremely seriously. Witness this response to a BusinessDay hack who recently sought a copy of the for-profit health insurer's constitution: "The Constitution

of Medibank Private ... can

be accessed through the

Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) website for a fee."

Golf Escape

CBD teed off incorrectly on Tuesday: the beneficiary of last month's charity CBD Golf Escape weekend was the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, not Cerebral Palsy Australia.

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bbutler@fairfaxmedia.com.au