18th Apr 2016 07:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK-based oil and gas company Hurricane Energy PLC on Monday said it raised GBP52.1 million through a share placing as it posted a narrowed pretax loss in 2015.
Hurricane said it will issue 347.2 million shares at 15.00 pence per share, the vast majority of which will be taken up by private equity manager Kerogen Capital. Kerogen will subscribe for 293.9 million of the shares on offer, raising GBP44.1 million of the total.
Hurricane shares were up 33% to 13.68p on Monday morning, one of the best performers in the AIM All-Share.
Hurricane also agreed to issue 23.3 million warrants to Crystal Amber, another private equity investor, exercisable at 20.00p per share. Crystal Amber participated in the wider placing as well.
Hurricane said the funds will be used to spud the Lancaster 7 wells at the Lancaster basement discovery in north west England. The wells will include a pilot and a horizontal sidetrack well and are designed to refine the contingent resource range of the project.
"The successful completion of these two operations will enable us to advance the development of one of the UK's largest yet to be developed fields. To be able to progress to this point, whilst retaining a 100% interest in all our assets, is a tremendous accomplishment and can only aid our continuing farm-out discussions which are progressing well," said Chief Executive Robert Trice.
The news of the fundraising came as Hurricane said its pretax loss for the year to the end of December narrowed to GBP5.5 million from GBP9.0 million a year earlier, due entirely to a reduction in operating costs. The company does not generate any revenue.
Hurricane said the farm-out process for its licences in the UK continued apace in 2015, and technical and commercial talks with several potential partners are ongoing.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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