6th Dec 2018 10:38
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in Ascent Resources PLC fell on Thursday as the company said that it has halted its strategic review and formal sale process due to uncertainty related to the timings of some Slovenian permits amid claims of "abusive" communication.
Ascent shares were trading down 16% at 0.34 pence each.
Back in April, Ascent said it was looking for a partner to develop its existing assets, but also for offers to sell the company. Meanwhile, the company continued to chase up some environmental permits in Slovenia for its Petisovci project.
At the beginning of November, the Slovenian Environment Minister announced that his department would review Ascent's permit applications in the country.
On Thursday, Ascent specified that the "trigger" for the review "has been whether abusive communications from people claiming to be Ascent shareholders have inappropriately influenced the decisions of public officials in Slovenia".
"We have received the conclusions from the internal review carried out by the Environment Ministry via the Information Commissioner and the conclusions largely relate to the internal processes of the Environmental Agency. It makes conclusions on public relations procedures within the environment agency and the internal processes of the organisation. The focus of the review was therefore the process and not the content of the application," Ascent said.
The company added that a number of abusive emails are now the subject of a police investigation.
It added: "The board of Ascent continues to condemn any abusive communications directed at public officials in Slovenia.
"We continue to strongly urge all shareholders not to contact any officials or politicians in Slovenia."
The company said it will continue to cooperate with the Slovenian authorities to get the permits confirmed, however, it was forced to halt its review as the issues faced in the country were deemed as "an unacceptably high risk for investment" by many of the parties with whom it was holding discussions.
"The unpredictability of the Slovenian permitting system in respect of process and timing continues to have a deeply negative impact on the perceived investment environment in the country from outside investors," Ascent added. "The company views the operation of the Slovenian permitting system and related issues as having deprived shareholders of significant value in terms of historic costs and lost future benefits from the project."
In the short term, Ascent said it continues to seek to maximise revenues from production from our existing wells at Petisovci and "seek to add value elsewhere" on the project where new permits are not required.
It added that production from the wells in the month of November dropped to 463,283 cubic metres from 679,191 cubic metres. Revenue for the month is expected to be EUR100,000.
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Ascent Resources