Capricorn shareholders back six new directors proposed by activist fund

LONDON (Reuters) -Capricorn Energy said on Wednesday shareholders voted in favour of six new directors proposed by activist shareholder Palliser, days after the chair, chief executive and others quit the board of the British oil and gas company.

Palliser and some of Capricorn's biggest shareholders had also publicly opposed a planned merger with Israeli gas producer NewMed with major proxy advisers recommending votes against the takeover plan.

A shareholder vote on the NewMed deal was initially set to happen on Wednesday but Capricorn postponed it to Feb. 22 to give the new board time to assess the proposed transaction.

The six replacement directors suggested by Palliser include Hesham Mekawi, BP's former North Africa regional president, and Christopher Cox, who was CEO of Spirit Energy and held positions at Centrica and BG Group.

The other new board members are Maria Gordon, Craig Van der Laan, Richard Herbert and Tom Pitts. Each of the six candidates got more than 99% of votes cast at the meeting.

The new board will also have to look at Capricorn's executive team after Chief Executive Simon Thomson and Finance Chief James Smith both resigned from the board.

(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Toby Chopra and Jane Merriman)

By Shadia Nasralla