Share Issue/Capital Change • Feb 10, 2015
Share Issue/Capital Change
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PRIVATE PLACEMENT ALLOCATION COMPLETED
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR
INDIRECTLY, TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR
DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES, CANADA OR
JAPAN, OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE
DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL
Reference is made to the stock exchange notices
published by African Petroleum Corporation Limited
("African Petroleum Corporation" or the "Company")
on 9 February 2015 at 16:31 (CET) and 10 February
2015 at 08:45 (CET) regarding the contemplated
private placement to certain existing and new
investors (the "Private Placement") of new ordinary
shares (the "Offer Shares"). The Board of Directors
of the Company is pleased to announce that the
Private Placement has been successfully allocated
raising NOK 95,106,200 (approximately US$12.5
million) in gross proceeds through the allocation
of 271,732,000 Offer Shares at a subscription price
of NOK 0.35 per share. The Company intends to
allocate the balance of the intended placing amount
of NOK 115,000,000, being approximately NOK 19
million (approximately US$2.5m), to retail
investors who form a large part of the Company's
shareholder base, and from whom there has been
significant interest in this process (refer below
for further details). In addition, each applicant
in the Private Placement will be entitled to be
allocated one non-transferable option for every two
shares allocated in the Private Placement,
corresponding to a total allocation of up to
135,866,000 options. The Company reserves the right
to issue the options as transferable options,
subject to NSX and Australian regulatory rules. The
options have an exercise price of NOK 0.75 per
share and will have a two-year life from the date
of issue.
Following this announcement, the Company will
request that the matching halt be ended.
The application period for the Private Placement
closed at 13:00 (CET) today, 10 February 2015. The
completion of the Private Placement is conditional
upon (i) the relevant corporate resolutions
required to implement the Private Placement being
made by the Company, including the approval of the
Private Placement by shareholders of the Company in
a general meeting which is expected to be held on
or about 16 March 2015 ("Shareholder's Meeting");
(ii) the Company receiving full payment for the
Offer Shares on the due date for payment; (iii) any
regulatory approvals and filings required in
connection with the issuance of the Offer Shares,
including but not limited to an approval from the
Australian Foreign Investment Review Board if
applicable and (iv) the approval by the Financial
Supervisory Authority of Norway of a prospectus
prepared in accordance with the Norwegian
Securities Trading Act Chapter 7 for admission to
listing of the Offer Shares on Oslo Axess.
The notice of the Shareholder's Meeting will be
distributed to the Company's shareholders shortly.
It is expected that the Private Placement will be
completed on or about 18 March 2015.
Following issuance of the Offer Shares the issued
and outstanding share capital of the Company will
be 957,589,457 shares. If all options allocated in
the Private Placement are issued and exercised, the
issued and outstanding share capital of the Company
will be 1,093,455,457. The shares do not have a par
value.
The proceeds from the Private Placement will be
used to strengthen the Company's balance sheet and
liquidity position, to fund the Company's ongoing
exploration program, including seismic costs and
licence fees, as well as for working capital and
for general corporate purposes.
The Company's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Stuart
Lake, and Finance Director, Stephen West both
participated in the Private Placement by each
subscribing for 2,608,500 shares at a cost of NOK
912,975 each (approximately US$120,000 each). A
separate notification will be issued in due course.
Subject to approval by shareholders at the
Shareholder's Meeting, the Board of Directors of
African Petroleum Corporation intends to carry out
a subsequent offering of additional new shares and
options at the same terms as in the Private
Placement, expected to be in the amount of
approximately NOK 19 million (approximately US$2.5
million), in which the Company's shareholders
holding shares through VPS as of 10 February 2015,
as registered in the VPS on 12 February 2015, who
were not invited to participate in the Private
Placement and who are not resident in a
jurisdiction where such offering would be unlawful
or, for jurisdictions other than Norway, would
require any prospectus, filing, registration or
similar action, will be granted non-transferable
allocation rights to apply for, and, upon
application, be allocated new shares and options in
the Company. Please note that the original
announcement indicated rights to be issued to
shareholders as of 9 February 2015; however, due to
the extended application period, the ex-date has
been amended accordingly.
FirstEnergy Capital LLP and Mirabaud Securities LLP
have acted as Joint Lead Managers for the Private
Placement, and EAS Advisors, LLC, acting through
Merriman Capital, Inc., a member of FINRA / SIPC
has acted as US Sub-Agent for the Private Placement.
African Petroleum Corporation's Chief Executive
Officer, Dr Stuart Lake, commented:
"We are delighted to announce today's Private
Placement to raise US$12.5 million, and our
intention to raise a further US$2.5 million in a
subsequent repair offering. We are particularly
pleased by the confidence placed in us by our
existing and new investors and encouraged that we
have been able to complete the fundraising despite
the current uncertainty in world oil markets. The
net proceeds of the placing will be used to
primarily strengthen the Company's balance sheet
and liquidity position and to fund our ongoing
exploration programme, including seismic costs and
licence fees. The fundraising further bolsters our
position and provides us with additional
flexibility and optionality as we continue advanced
discussions with potential farm-out partners across
our prospective acreage offshore West Africa. We
look forward to updating the market on our progress
in due course."
For further information, please contact:
Stuart Lake, Chief Executive Officer
Stephen West, Finance Director
Tel: +44 20 3435 7700
Angeline Hicks, Company Secretary
Tel: + 61 401 489 883
Joint Lead Managers:
FirstEnergy Capital LLP
Hugh Sanderson / Jonathan Wright
Tel: +44 20 7448 0200
Mirabaud Securities LLP
Peter Krens
Tel: +44 20 7878 3362
Media Contacts:
For UK and International media - Buchanan
Ben Romney/Helen Chan
Tel: +44 207 466 5000
For Norwegian media - First House
Geir Arne Drangeid
Tel: +47 913 10 458
Geir Gjervan
Tel: +47 908 79 108
About African Petroleum Corporation
African Petroleum Corporation is a dynamic,
independent oil and gas exploration company
operating ten licences in five countries offshore
West Africa. The Company's assets are located in
fast-emerging hydrocarbon basins, principally the
West African Transform Margin, where several
discoveries have been made in recent years,
including African Petroleum Corporation's Narina-1
discovery in February 2012, which proved a working
hydrocarbon system in the Liberian basin. With a
combined net acreage position of 30,967km2 through
its licences in Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Senegal,
Sierra Leone and The Gambia, the Company has
matured its portfolio rapidly, acquiring more than
18,500km2 of 3D seismic data and successfully
drilling three wells, one of which was the first
hydrocarbons discovery in the offshore Liberian
deep-water basin.
For more information about African Petroleum
Corporation, please see www.africanpetroleum.com.au
This information is subject to disclosure
requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the
Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
Disclaimer
The information contained herein shall not
constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of
an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the
securities referred to herein in any jurisdiction
in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be
unlawful prior to registration, exemption from
registration or qualification under the securities
laws of any such jurisdiction. In particular, the
securities referenced herein have not been, and
will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities
Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and
may not be offered or sold in the United States
absent registration or pursuant an exemption from
the registration requirements of the Securities Act
and applicable U.S. state securities laws. The
Company does not intend to register any part of the
offering in the United States or to conduct a
public offering of securities in the United
States.
This press release may not be released to any U.S.
wire service or distributed or sent into the United
States, Canada, Japan or any other jurisdiction in
which such distribution would be unlawful or would
require registration or other measures.
This document is a press release and not a
prospectus for the purposes of Directive 2003/71/EC
as amended (together with any applicable
implementing measures in any Member State,
the "Prospectus Directive"). Any offering of
securities will be made to investors in any EEA
Member State in reliance on applicable exemptions
from the obligation to prepare a prospectus under
the Prospectus Directive, and no EEA prospectus
will accordingly be prepared or available for the
purpose of the Private Placement. In any EEA
Member State other than Norway that has implemented
the Prospectus Directive, this communication is
only addressed to and is only directed at qualified
investors in that Member State within the meaning
of the Prospectus Directive, i.e., only to
investors who can receive the offer without an
approved prospectus in such EEA Member State.
This press release may not be distributed to any
person in the United Kingdom except persons (i) who
have professional experience in matters relating to
investments falling within Article 19(5)
(investment professionals) of the Financial
Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial
Promotions) Order 2005 ("FPO"), (ii) who fall
within the categories of persons referred to in
Article 49(2)(a) to (d) (high net worth companies,
unincorporated associations, etc.) of the FPO or
(iii) to whom it may otherwise be lawfully
communicated.
This press release is not an offer to sell, or the
solicitation of an offer to buy, any of the
Company's securities to or from investors in
Australia. This press release is not a prospectus,
product disclosure statement or other offer
document under Australian law. Any offers relating
to Company securities in Australia will be made
only to persons who are professional investors or
sophisticated investors (as those terms are used in
s708(11) and s708(8) respectively of the Australian
Corporations Act 2001 ("Corporations Act")) or
other persons specified in s708 of the Corporations
Act who do not require or need to be given a
prospectus or other disclosure document under
Chapter 6D of the Corporations Act to lawfully
receive an offer to subscribe for or acquire
securities in the Company.
This press release contains forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements are
statements that are not historical facts and may be
identified by words such
as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intends," "es
timate," "will," "may," "continue," "should" and
similar expressions. The forward-looking
statements in this release are based upon various
assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon
further assumptions. Although African Petroleum
Corporation believes that these assumptions were
reasonable when made, these assumptions are
inherently subject to significant known and unknown
risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other
important factors which are difficult or impossible
to predict and are beyond its control. Such risks,
uncertainties, contingencies and other important
factors could cause actual events to differ
materially from the expectations expressed or
implied in this release by such forward-looking
statements.
The information, opinions and forward-looking
statements contained in this release speak only as
at its date, and are subject to change without
notice. African Petroleum Corporation disclaims
any obligation to update and revise any forward-
looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
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