Beach Energy CEO Matt Kay unexpectedly quits
The Kerry Stokes-backed Beach Energy has announced chief executive Matt Kay has suddenly resigned.
The Kerry Stokes-backed Beach Energy announced chief executive Matt Kay has suddenly resigned and will depart the South Australian oil and gas producer on Tuesday in a shock move for the company.
The move is the latest shake-up in a rollercoaster year for Australia’s energy industry and follows Woodside boss Peter Coleman stepping aside and Oil Search CEO Keiran Wulff leaving amid alleged bullying complaints.
Mr Kay has left to pursue other opportunities but did not specify if he has another role lined up. Beach shares plunged as much as 9 per cent and were off 7.4 per cent to $1.30 at 3pm AEDT.
Beach‘s chief financial officer, Morne Engelbrecht, has been appointed acting CEO while a search process starts to find his replacement.
Mr Kay, in charge since May 2016, said he felt now was an appropriate time to depart given Beach‘s current strong position
“I was brought on board to help Beach grow from a single basin operator and diversify the business. This was capped off by the sanctioning of the Moomba Carbon Capture and Storage project this week,” Mr Kay said.
“I want to thank the entire Beach team for their efforts over the past six years. The company’s future is extremely bright and I wish Morné and the team all the best.”
Mr Kay joined Beach during a rout in oil prices but steadily built up the business and sanctioned the $1.6bn deal in 2017 to buy Origin Energy‘s conventional oil and gas business, called Lattice Energy.
The company is also an emerging LNG exporter through its Waitsia project in Western Australia.
Beach‘s share price rose to $2.77 in early 2020 but the producer has endured a tougher 2021 and plunged in April after it downgraded annual forecasts because of greater than expected declines in the Western Flank oil reserves in South Australia.
Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group owns 30 per cent of Beach Energy.
Mr Kay worked for three of Beach’s bigger rivals — Santos, Woodside Petroleum and Oil Search — before reaching the age of 50.
The Adelaide executive landed at Woodside shortly after Peter Costello had blocked Shell’s $10bn bid for Woodside, and was the brains behind Woodside’s highly regarded — but ultimately abandoned — Leviathan gas project in Israel. In 2015, he was Peter Botten’s right hand man at Oil Search defending a $11.6bn takeover bid lobbed by his former workmates at Woodside.
Beach’s board, backed by Mr Stokes’ deep pockets, gave Mr Kay the green light to strike a deal catapulting Beach into the big time.
Beach struck the Lattice deal with Origin nearly a year later for $1.6bn, dwarfing Beach’s entire market capitalisation with the equity raising backed by Seven.
From its single Cooper Basin focus, Beach became a major player with production in five basins including Western Australia and New Zealand, up from its South Australian roots.