Dealings Commence
Borders & Southern Petroleum plc
24 May 2005
Embargoed until RNS 0700, 24 May 2005
Borders & Southern Petroleum plc
£25.5 million AIM debut following successful fundraising
Borders & Southern Petroleum plc ('B&S' or the 'Company'), an international oil
and gas exploration and production business, announces that dealings will
commence in its shares this morning under the symbol BOR. B&S has raised £9.1
million net of expenses and will be capitalised at £25.5 million.
The Company, which is chaired by Harry Dobson, is run by a management team with
proven experience of acquiring, evaluating and developing oil and gas
exploration plays for major international companies.
The Company has raised the funds to enable an exploration programme to be
carried out on its Falkland Islands acreage and allow it to assess and acquire
interests in further international exploration projects which meet the Company's
investment criteria.
The details of the placing are as follows:
Placing Price 20p
Number of Ordinary Shares in issue after the Placing 127,687,500
Market capitalisation of the Company at the Placing Price £25,537,500
Number of Placing Shares 50,000,000
Proportion of Enlarged Share Capital subject to the Placing 39.16%
Gross proceeds of the Placing £10,000,000
Proceeds of the Placing to be received by the Company net of
estimated expenses of £866,000 to be borne by the Company £9,134,000
Ocean Equities Limited was the broker to the placing.
About B&S
B&S was formed as a public limited company in June 2004. At that time, the
Company submitted an application for its first project, offshore exploration
acreage covering 19,598 square kilometres of the Falkland Plateau sub-basin,
southeast of the Falkland Islands. The Company was granted five production
licences by the Governor of the Falkland Islands over this acreage with effect
from 1 November 2004.
Strategy
B&S has assembled a management team with the technical and operational
experience to capture and manage a geographically diversified portfolio of
international oil and gas exploration projects. It intends to focus on gaining
early entry into projects where it can demonstrate:
• basins with proven play elements
• play fairways with high impact prospects
• prospects that have follow up potential
It is intended that the Company will undertake the majority of its technical
evaluation in-house, as the Directors believe that this will result in better
technical and commercial judgements. B&S may seek to reduce its financial
exposure to individual projects through acquiring farm-in partners with the
financial resources and technical capabilities to manage drilling and
development programmes but the target is to retain typical working interests of
35%. It is anticipated that the Company will seek exposure to up to five
separate projects at any time.
The Company will aim to gain early entry into new acreage, initially taking 100%
working interest and operatorship. It will add value through the quality of its
technical work and reduce the exploration risks prior to seeking partners. In
some instances the Company may farm-in to existing projects where the Directors
believe the project meets its exploration strategy and investment criteria and
where the terms of entry are considered to be favourable. It is unlikely that B&
S will participate in competitive auctions for licences or pay large signature
bonuses.
Exploration Programme for the Falkland Islands Acreage
B&S has licensed 80 blocks which cover an area of 19,598 sq km and lie between
135 km and 325 km offshore of the Falkland Islands, within water depths of
between 200 and 3,000 metres. These blocks cover a significant proportion of a
fold belt trend that exists within the Falkland Islands Designated Exploration
Area. This trend extends westwards into Argentine waters and into the Malvinas
sub-basin where Repsol (YPF) SA and its partners have recently initiated an
exploration programme.
The Company has recently completed an initial evaluation of the exploration
potential of its Falkland Islands acreage. This study comprised a comprehensive
regional review, the interpretation of all available industry and academic
seismic and well data, along with a detailed study of the literature. Within the
Company's acreage a number of structural and stratigraphic leads have been
identified, including: frontal folds, tilted fault blocks, thrust belt
structures, growth fault structures and stratigraphic traps.
In April 2005, the Company commenced a 2D seismic programme. The Company has
contracted Geophysical Services Incorporated to shoot over 2,500 km of 2D
seismic data. This is expected to be completed by the end of June 2005.
It is anticipated that the Directors will seek to acquire 3D seismic data on the
Falkland Islands acreage prior to committing to an exploration well.
Reasons for the Admission and use of proceeds
The Company intends to utilise the £9.1 million raised from the Placing as
follows:
£1.2 million for overheads over the next three years with the balance to meet
the Company's work programme obligation and technical objectives in the
Falklands and to undertake due diligence on further projects to be identified by
the Directors.
Commenting on the Placing, Howard Obee, B&S's Chief Executive, said, 'We're
delighted to have raised funds to explore what we believe is some very exciting
acreage as our first project in the Falklands. The money will also allow us to
begin the process of acquiring additional projects which meet our stringent
investment criteria. We hope to deliver real value to our existing and new
shareholders.'
Enquiries to:
Howard Obee Peter Fleming
Chief Executive Finance Director
Borders & Southern Petroleum plc Borders & Southern Petroleum plc
Tel: 020 7661 9348 Tel: 020 7661 9348
Guy Wilkes Simon Hudson/Richard Sunderland
Ocean Equities Limited Tavistock Communications
Tel: 020 7786 4370 Tel: 020 7920 3150 or 07966 477256
Notes to editors:
Directors and Senior Management
The Board of Directors comprises:
David Harry Williamson Dobson (Non-Executive Chairman) age 57
Harry Dobson is a former investment banker and senior partner of Yorkton
Securities. He currently engages in various merchant banking and venture capital
activities in North America and Europe, and has acted as Chairman of a number of
resource companies (including American Pacific Mining Company Inc. and Lytton
Minerals Limited). He is currently the Chairman of the board of Kirkland Lake
Gold Inc. (a Toronto Stock Exchange and AIM quoted company that acquired and put
back into production the five contiguous mines that made up the historic
Kirkland Lake gold camp) and Rambler Metals and Mining plc (an AIM quoted
company that has acquired the Rambler copper-gold project in Newfoundland,
Canada). He is experienced in the organisation and funding of resource projects,
including those located in inaccessible locations.
Howard Kevin Obee (Chief Executive) age 45
Howard Obee was appointed Chief Executive when the Company was incorporated in
June 2004. He has a PhD in structural geology from Imperial College, and has
spent 20 years in the oil industry, initially with BP (1985-1992), and
subsequently with BHP Billiton (1992-2004). He trained as an exploration
geologist, but has been appointed to various technical and commercial roles,
incorporating exploration, new ventures, strategic planning, and business
development. His most recent roles for BHP Billiton were West Africa Asset Team
Leader, and Exploration Manager, London. He has experience of executing seismic
and drilling programmes in frontier basins, including deep water programmes.
Peter William Fleming (Finance Director) age 43
Peter Fleming has over 12 years of upstream oil and gas experience, the majority
of which was gained at BHP Billiton both in London and Melbourne. Whilst at BHP
Billiton, Peter held senior positions in exploration and business development,
investment evaluation, acquisitions and disposals and strategic planning. Prior
to joining BHP Billiton, he worked for Bridge Oil and Banque Indosuez. He holds
Masters degrees in Business Administration and Finance from Auckland and
Macquarie Universities respectively. Peter will work a minimum of 50 days per
year. This reflects the level of commercial activity at this stage in the
Company's development.
Stephen James Douglas Posford (Non-Executive Director) age 58
Stephen Posford was a partner of stockbrokers W. Greenwell & Co. In 1986, he
became Managing Director of Greenwell Montagu Gilt Edged, and in 1989 moved to
Salomon Brothers to head up their proprietary trading department in London. He
then became Salomon Brothers European CEO before retiring in 1996.
Christopher Nigel Hurst-Brown (Non-Executive Director) age 53
Since qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, Nigel Hurst-Brown has pursued a
career in fund management. From 1986-1990 he was Chairman of Lloyd's Investment
Managers. In 1990 he moved to Mercury Asset Management as a main board Director
and following Mercury's acquisition by Merrill Lynch in 1997 became a Managing
Director of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. Currently he is Chief Executive
of Hotchkis and Wiley (UK) Limited and a member of the Executive Committee of
its US parent Hotchkis and Wiley Capital Management LLC.
Senior Management
Philip Fish (Exploration) age 44
Philip Fish has spent over 22 years in the upstream oil industry, working for
several of the major operators. After obtaining his BSc in Geological Geophysics
from Reading University in 1982, Philip worked for Britoil, BP, Amoco and
Enterprise Oil before becoming a consultant. Philip held various geoscience
technical roles within Exploration, Research and Development and operational
groups. He has worked in many of the world's hydrocarbon provinces including
Gulf of Mexico, North Slope, Caribbean, North Sea, West of Britain, Yemen,
France, NW Africa, Egypt, Pakistan and Kazakhstan.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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