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But will the announcement raise your interest levels?
Northcote (LSE:NCT), an onshore US oil and gas exploration and production company, has raised £1.75 million (before expenses) through a placing arranged by Shore Capital Stockbrokers Limited of 159,090,910 new ordinary shares (‘Ordinary Shares’) of no par value in the capital of the Company (‘the Placing Shares’) with new and existing shareholders in the Company at a price of 1.1 pence per Placing Share (‘the Placing’).
Details of the Placing:
The company is raising £1.75 million (before expenses) to advance its strategy to increase its production and reserves in Oklahoma. Having already reached its 2013 production target of 100 BOEPD in July 2013, five months ahead of schedule, the Company is targeting 250 BOEPD by 31 July 2014. In addition, Northcote is focussed on increasing its net acreage position, which currently stands at 2,895 net mineral acres to 5,000 by the year end.
Northcote has a number of initiatives underway to achieve its mid-2014 production target of 250 BOEPD, including the fully funded Autumn 2013 frack campaign and the drilling of a Missippian well at the Mathis project and part of the placing proceeds will be used to advance Northcote’s work programmes in Oklahoma.
In addition the company has been offered a number of attractive acquisition opportunities in Oklahoma, many of which fit their investment criteria of being available at a fair valuation, whilst having significant ability to add production and increase value. The company is in discussions in relation to some of these opportunities which may or may not lead to an acquisition being made, furthermore they expect to deploy a portion of the net proceeds of the Placing for such acquisitions should they be made.
Northcote’s board is confident that the successful implementation of these core initiatives, alongside the results from on-going well completions across the Company’s portfolio, will enable the company to meet its stated objectives.
The Placing Shares would represent approximately 13.83 per cent. of the Company’s currently issued share capital as enlarged by the Placing Shares. The Placing Price is at a discount of approximately 12 per cent. to the closing middle market price on 8 October 2013, being the last practicable date prior to the publication of the announcement. The Placing is conditional, inter alia, on admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM.
It is expected that admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM will be split into two tranches with 90,909,091 Placing Shares expected to be admitted to trading at 8.00 a.m. on 10 October 2013 and the remaining 68,181,819 Placing Shares expected to be admitted to trading at 8.00 a.m on 16 October 2013. The Placing Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the company’s existing Ordinary Shares.
Share Capital:
Following the issue of the Placing Shares as described above, the issued share capital of the company will consist of 1,150,503,626 Ordinary Shares. No shares were held in treasury at the date of this announcement. The total current voting rights in the Company is therefore 1,150,503,626.
The above figure (1,150,503,626 Ordinary Shares) is the figure which may be used by shareholders at the denominator for the calculation by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the company.
Northcote’s Chief Executive Officer Randy Connally said, “We are determined to maintain the strong momentum we have established to date, which has already seen us achieve our net production target of 100 BOEPD and more than double the value of our proven reserves to US$76.7 million since January 2013, as we home in on our 250 BOEPD target in the next nine months.
“Our overall objective is to substantially grow our cash flows and ultimately, the value for shareholders and we believe that this placing will allow us complete accretive acquisitions as well as to accelerate other operational initiatives and we look forward to updating the market at the appropriate time” said Mr Connally.
