14th Apr 2008 11:41
Afren PLC14 April 2008 Afren plc (AIM: AFR) Results of Extraordinary General Meeting London, 14 April 2008 - The Board of Afren plc is pleased to announce that theresolutions proposed at the Company's EGM held today were duly passed byshareholders. The following statement was made by Dr Rilwanu Lukman, KBE, Legion d'Honneur,Chairman of Afren, at today's Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company: "We continue to make significant progress in our strategy to become the premierpan-African independent exploration and production company. We have rapidlybuilt a diverse portfolio of assets across six countries, through a combinationof partnerships with indigenous and national oil companies and value-addedacquisitions. In this vein, we recently announced our sixth indigenous partnership in Nigeria,with Oriental, to jointly develop the Ebok field. Notably, Oriental was awardeda 100 per cent. interest and operatorship of Ebok in May 2007 by the ExxonMobil/ Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Joint Venture and it benefits from theNigerian Marginal Field Fiscal and Tax Regime. Ebok is a material provedundeveloped opportunity, with the potential to add significant reserves andproduction to Afren's portfolio. In addition, as we look beyond First Oil, weare delighted to have also established a unique collaboration with Oriental tofurther grow our portfolio on the development of other potential developmentassets in the region. We also recently announced the US$205 million strategic acquisition of DevonEnergy Corporation's assets in Cote d'Ivoire. The acquisition offers access toimmediate oil and gas production, proven reserves, cash flow and represents astrategic new country entry in partnership with the National Oil Company of Coted'Ivoire, PETROCI. This followed the acquisition of Devon's high impactexploration assets in Ghana and Angola, which offer potential excitingoperational newsflow later in 2008. On 3 April 2008, we announced a successful equity placing, raising a total ofUS$236 million equivalent. The reaction from both existing and new shareholderswas tremendous. The order book, which was filled within 30 minutes of thepublic announcement, was significantly oversubscribed. We expect to use theproceeds to fund the initial appraisal of the Ebok field, to contribute to thenon Okoro Setu development projects this year and a high impact four countryexploration programme, and provide working capital to continue to pursuemanagement's accretive acquisition strategy. At the time of the placing, Afren also announced the appointment of MerrillLynch as Corporate Broker and a decision to move to the Official List of theLondon Stock Exchange, before the end of 2008. The Board of Afren considers thismove as a natural upward progression in our stage of development. Looking forward, we expect 2008 to be a transformational year for Afren as welook beyond First Oil from the Okoro Setu Project in Nigeria and continue tobuild our reserves and production base in West Africa." All the resolutions proposed at the Extraordinary General Meeting were dulypassed. 14 April 2008 Enquiries: Afren plc +44 20 7451 9700Osman Shahenshah Chief ExecutiveEvert Jan Mulder Chief Operating OfficerGalib Virani Investor Relations Merrill Lynch International +44 20 7996 1000Andrew OsborneOliver Holbourn Jefferies International Limited +44 20 7029 8000Toby HaywardOliver Griffiths Pelham Public Relations +44 20 7743 6673James HendersonAlisdair Haythornthwaite This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
AFR.L