As announced on 13 May 2014, the Company entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the onshore shale gas business and assets of Alkane Energy plc, which was, inter alia, conditional upon shareholder and DECC approval. At the time, the Company alsoannounced details of a conditional Placing to raise £6.4 million (before expenses) through the issue of 32,000,000 Ordinary Shares at an Issue Price of 20p per share and an Open Offer to raise up to a further £0.6m through the issue of up to 3,033,663 Ordinary Shares at an Issue Price of 20p per share. The Open Offer closed for acceptances at 11.00a.m. on 30 May 2014.
The Company is pleased to announce that it has received valid acceptances from Qualifying Shareholders in respect of 16,261,629 Open Offer Shares, including applications for 14,565,911 Open Offer Shares under the Excess Application Facility. This represents approximately 536 per cent of the maximum Open Offer Shares available under the Open Offer and as such the Open Offer has been oversubscribed.
Qualifying Shareholders who have validly applied for Open Offer Shares will receive their full Open Offer Entitlement and, following a pro-rata scaling back, approximately 9.185 per cent of any Open Offer Shares they applied for under the Excess Application Facility. The Company has therefore raised the maximum gross proceeds of £606,709 (before expenses) through the Open Offer.
Both the Placing and Open Offer remain conditional upon, amongst other things, the approval by Shareholders of the Resolutions at the General Meeting of the Company to be held at 11a.m. on 5 June 2014, and the Placing Agreement becoming unconditional in all respects.
It is expected that Admission will become effective and dealings in the Open Offer Shares will commence on or around 6 June 2014.
Capitalised terms used in this announcement are as defined in the shareholder circular.
A further announcement will be made in due course.