15th Aug 2007 07:01
Leed Petroleum PLC 15 August 2007 This announcement does not constitute or form part of any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for, any securities and any purchase of or application for securities in the Company should be made only on the basis of the information contained in the Company's AIM admission document. LEED PETROLEUM PLC ("Leed", or the "Company", and with its subsidiaries, the "Group") FIRST DAY OF DEALINGS ON AIM London, 15 August 2007 - Leed Petroleum PLC, an oil and gas exploration and production company focused on the Gulf of Mexico, today announces the placing of 104,090,588 Subscription Shares and 10,638,297 Sale Shares and admission of the Company's Ordinary Shares of 5p each to trading on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange ("AIM"). The Company's trading symbol is LDP and further information, including the Company's AIM admission document, can be found on the Company's website at www.leedpetroleum.com. Matrix Corporate Capital is Nominated Adviser and Broker to the Company. Company Background Leed Petroleum is an oil and gas exploration and production company operating in the Gulf of Mexico, with interests in 12 Gulf of Mexico leases and one onshore lease located in South Louisiana, USA. Admission Details Placing Price (per Share) 47p Number of Subscription Shares being issued pursuant to the Placing 104,090,588 Gross proceeds of the Placing receivable by the Company £48.92 million Number of Sale Shares being sold pursuant to the Placing 10,638,297 Number of Ordinary Shares in issue at Admission 251,020,767 Market capitalisation at Admission at the Placing Price £117.98 million Subscription Shares as a percentage of the Enlarged Share Capital 41.47% Sale Shares as a percentage of the Enlarged Share Capital 4.24% Use of Proceeds • Execution of the drilling and development programme for the Eugene Island Assets, the South Marsh Island Assets, the Ship Shoal Assets and the Grand Isle Assets • Evaluate new opportunities and acquisitions in its market area and to capitalise on those opportunities as they present themselves • Reduce Group indebtedness Strategy The Company intends to remain focused on the Gulf of Mexico region. The Company plans to use management experience, expertise and access to seek to substantially increase its existing reserves and to seek to convert its possible reserves to either probable or proven reserves and its probable and proved undeveloped reserves to proved producing reserves. The Company will also seek to grow through a three-tiered acquisition strategy: • identifying and purchasing under-exploited assets from multinational major or large independent oil and gas companies. Such assets may have been under-exploited because the production levels were not material for the larger companies, or due to changing strategies of those companies, for example, shifting from shallow to deep water Gulf of Mexico operations, or concentrating on other locations; • farm-ins and other partnership arrangements on acreage owned by multinational major or large independent oil and gas companies to explore or develop reserves that would otherwise not be produced; and • participation in Gulf of Mexico MMS lease sales, primarily in the central Gulf of Mexico region. Howard Wilson, President and Chief Executive of Leed Petroleum PLC, commented: "Admission to trading on AIM marks an important new stage in our development. The Company has a balanced and impressive portfolio in a region with strong economics, infrastructure and proven oil and gas production. With these proceeds we are now positioned to accelerate our plans and deliver on our ambitions of creating shareholder value. Our current daily production is expected to rapidly increase as we commence our development programme and we see further growth through a number of opportunities aligned with our three-tiered acquisition strategy in Leed's core region of expertise." Enquiries: Leed Petroleum PLC +1 337 314 0700 Howard Wilson, Chief Executive Matrix Corporate Capital LLP +44 20 7925 3300 Alastair Stratton Tim Graham Pelham Public Relations Alisdair Haythornthwaite +44 20 7743 6676 Evgeniy Chuikov +44 20 3008 5506 NOTES TO EDITORS Operations Leed operations are predominantly concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico. The Company operates through three subsidiaries3/4LPUS Inc., LPH LLC and LP LLC. Through LP LLC, the Group holds operating interests in Eugene Island Block 183 and the southern half of Eugene Island Block 184, the Grand Isle Assets, the South Marsh Island Assets, the Sorrento Field Asset and the Ship Shoal Asset as well as non-operating interests in the East Cameron Assets, the Main Pass Assets and Eugene Island Block 172 and the northern half of Eugene Island Block 184. The Eugene Island Assets (other than Block 172), the East Cameron Assets and the Main Pass Assets are producing fields located off the coast of the state of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. Reserves Base Leed has built a portfolio of producing and prospective assets primarily located in the Gulf of Mexico which are estimated by Collarini Associates to have, net to Leed, 4,011mbbls of proven and probable reserves of oil and liquids and 70,671mmcf of proven and probable reserves of gas. The Company's stated reserves for the Assets, prepared in accordance with Society of Petroleum Engineers guidelines, as at 1 June 2007 are set out below: Gross Net Attributable (all figures in Mbls or Proved Proved & Proved, Proved Proved & Proved, MMCF) Probable Probable & Probable Probable & Possible Possible Total for Oil & Liquids 3,680 11,166 25,823 1,133 4,011 10,493 Total for Gas 87,502 178,477 615,203 29,882 70,671 257,184 Source: Collarini Associates, Competent Persons Report Board Members Robert Adair, aged 50, (Non-executive Chairman) After graduating in geology from Oxford University Mr. Adair qualified as a Chartered Accountant specialising in oil and gas taxation. Mr. Adair founded Melrose Resources plc in 1992. From 1993 to 1995 he was chief executive of Melrose Energy plc and subsequently deputy chairman and finance director until the de-merger of Melrose Resources plc in May 1997. He is currently chairman of Skye Investments Limited and Terrace Hill Group plc, a property development and investment group listed on AIM. He is a director of Honiton Energy PLC, a wind power developer in China. Mr. Adair is also non-executive chairman of AIM-listed Plexus Holdings PLC, a company producing innovative wellheads for the oil industry and a director of Chameleon Trust plc, a listed investment trust. Howard Wilson, aged 49, (President and Chief Executive) Mr. Wilson has over 26 years experience in oil and gas exploration and production. Mr. Wilson has served as President & CEO of LP LLC since November 2005. Immediately prior to joining the company Mr. Wilson was Vice President of Engineering and Operations of Darcy Exploration, Inc. from January 2000 through to October 2002 when Darcy Exploration, Inc. was purchased by Novus Petroleum, Ltd. He then served as Vice President of Engineering and Operations of Novus Louisiana, LLC until October 2005. Mr. Wilson was also Vice President of Operations of Petsec Energy, Inc., a position he held from 1993 to 2000. Between 1981 and 1993, Mr. Wilson held various technical and managerial positions with Placid Oil Company and Nerco Oil and Gas, Inc. involving onshore and offshore oil and gas fields in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Mr. Wilson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, USA. James Slatten, aged 48, (Chief Operating Officer) Mr. Slatten has over 16 years experience in business and legal matters. Mr. Slatten has served as an executive director of LP LLC since November 2005. Immediately prior to joining the company, Mr. Slatten was Vice President of Land and Legal of Darcy Exploration Inc. (later Novus Louisiana LLC) from March 2000 to November 2005. Mr. Slatten was also Vice President of Land and Legal of Petsec Energy, Inc. and served in various executive capacities at Petsec between 1998 and 2001. He was a member of the Gordon, Arata, McCollam & Duplantis law firm from 1985 to 1998 and clerked for the United States District Court in New Orleans in 1983-84. Mr. Slatten holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and economics from the University of Louisiana and post-graduate degrees in law (J.D.) and business management (M.H.A.) from Tulane University, New Orleans, USA. Robert Alcock, aged 66, (Senior non-executive Director) Mr. Alcock commenced his career as a financial analyst with Ford of Europe from where he joined Gulf Oil Company in London, initially dealing with their exploration and production activities in the Middle East and Africa. He later moved to senior financial positions with Gulf Oil Company and eventually became Head of Strategic Planning for refining and marketing in Europe. Following his time at Gulf Oil Company, Mr. Alcock joined Black and Decker Inc. as chief financial officer based in Maryland, USA. He left Black and Decker Inc. to become chief financial officer at RJR Nabisco. Mr. Alcock is currently non-executive chairman of Anglo and Overseas Investment Trust, chairman of Next Group Pensions Trustees Ltd, senior non-executive director at Huntsworth plc and a non-executive director of Connaught Group Plc. Mr. Alcock is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. Ian Shaun Gibbs, aged 41, (Non-executive Director) Mr. Gibbs is a Managing Director of the Crosby Group's merchant banking business and is based in Singapore. He joined Crosby as a Director in 1997 responsible for the East Asia activities of Crosby and soon after became the Managing Director and Head of Crosby Corporate Advisory in 1999. In 2002, Techpacific Capital Limited acquired the Asian investment banking and asset management business of the Crosby Group. Mr. Gibbs was subsequently appointed as the Managing Director of the merchant banking group of Crosby responsible for Asia. Prior to joining the Crosby Group, Mr. Gibbs was responsible for the Asian operations of Enskilda Securities and was based in their Singapore office. He joined Enskilda Securities (London) in 1990 and worked on a range of corporate finance transactions, including major debt restructuring assignments, which followed the Scandinavian crisis in the early 1990s. Prior to Enskilda, Mr. Gibbs was with Arthur Andersen (London) for four years at the start of his career.Mr. Gibbs has an MA in Economics from Cambridge University, England and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. Peter Denis Hirsch, aged 56, (Non-executive Director) Mr Hirsch is Managing Director of Hirsch Technical Ltd, a London-based management consultancy specialising in business development and transformation. During his twenty-five year international career in oil and gas exploration with Shell, Chevron and others, he was responsible for several new oilfield discoveries, a positive outcome from a complex North Sea equity re-determination and a number of technical innovations. Following an assignment as internal Change Management consultant with the company's UK operating company, in which his team reduced OPEX by several million dollars while improving service quality, he founded Hirsch Technical in 1998 to support clients in a wide variety of management consulting projects, mainly in the oil and engineering sectors. Mr. Hirsch has an MA in Natural Science from University of Cambridge, England, an MSc and DIC from Imperial College, University of London and a Diploma in Management Studies from Birkbeck College, London University. Seiki Takahashi, aged 65, (Non-executive Director) Mr. Takahashi has spent over 40 years at Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (''Mitsui'') and Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., Ltd. (''MOECO''), mostly in the energy sector. At Mitsui, he had experience in the oil and gas business including an assignment in London for more than five years during 1973-1978. He launched the Qatar LNG project during the 1990s. During this period, he served as a board member for North West LNG project in Australia, Abu Dhabi LNG project and Qatar Gas LNG project. He then assumed responsibility for the south-western region of America as Senior Vice President, Mitsui & Co (U.S.A.), Inc. during 1994-97. During this period, he served as a board member holding various offices for Mitsui's joint venture in the US. When Mr. Takahashi joined MOECO in January 1998 as a director and executive vice president, he was responsible for developing new ventures and expanding its business into Texas and Oman as well as into SouthWestern Asia. He also served as board member for two years at Novus Petroleum, which at the time was Australia listed. Mr. Takahashi is currently a representative director of IB Daiwa and was appointed on 2 September 2005. Mr. Takahashi graduated from Matsuyama University of Commerce in March 1964 and studied at Miami University, Ohio, USA during 1964-1965. The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed by Mitchell Reece, Vice President, Collarini Associates. Mr. Reece has a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering, is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas and a member of the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers, Society of Petroleum Engineers and the American Petroleum Institute. All defined terms have the same meaning as in the Company's AIM admission document published on 7 August 2007. Matrix Corporate Capital LLP, which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Services Authority and is a member of the London Stock Exchange, is advising the Company and no-one else in connection with the flotation and will not be responsible to any person other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to its clients or for advising any other person in relation to the contents of this announcement, the flotation or any matter referred to herein. The distribution of this announcement in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law and persons into whose possession this announcement comes should inform themselves about, and observe, any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The securities to be offered in connection with the flotation have not been, and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") or under the securities legislation of any state of the United States, and may not be offered or sold in the United States. The relevant clearances have not been, and will not be, obtained from the Securities Commission of any province or territory of Canada; no document in relation to the flotation has been, or will be, lodged with, or registered by, The Australian Securities and Investments Commission; and no registration statement has been, or will be, filed with the Japanese Ministry of Finance in relation to the flotation or the securities to be offered in the flotation. Accordingly, subject to certain exceptions, the securities to be offered in the flotation may not, directly or indirectly, be offered or sold within the United States, South Africa, Australia, Japan, Canada or the Republic of Ireland or to or for the account or benefit of any national, resident or citizen of South Africa, Australia, Japan, Canada or the Republic of Ireland or to any person located in the United States. Information contained in this announcement may include "forward-looking statements" which are based on current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. It is believed that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable, but they may be affected by a number of variables which could cause actual results or trends to differ materially. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this announcement. Except as required by the AIM Rules, the London Stock Exchange or by law, the Company disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the Company's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Information contained in this announcement cannot be relied upon as a guide to future performance. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Leed Resources