Energy exploration firm raises £6.3m

SAN LEON Energy, a gas and oil exploration company chaired by former Smart Telecom chief Oisín Fanning, has conditionally raised £6.3 million (€7 million) to fund projects in Morocco, Poland, Italy and the United States.

A related deal opens up potential for one of the key investors in the fundraising to build a stake of up to $50 million (€33.99 million) in the business, which is listed on the small-cap Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London.

San Leon, which has a market capitalisation of about £73.13 million, raised the funds through a conditional share placing with institutional and other investors at 15p per placing share. This represents a discount of roughly 42 per cent from the stock’s closing price on Thursday night, 26.25p.

Participants in the fundraising include PSG Ventures, a Norwegian investment company owned by Petroleum Geo-Services (PSG), which subscribed for 13.33 million of the 41.87 million placing shares at the placing price.

PSG, which has a remit to provide seismic services in return for equity and minority stakes in exploration assets, will provide seismic acquisition and data processing services to San Leon. San Leon is obliged to purchase a minimum work volume from PSG equating to the subscription of not less than $20 million (€13.6 million) of ordinary shares by PGS Ventures.

PGS Ventures will have the opportunity to contribute at least 40 – 50 per cent of the costs of purchase of seismic services by subscribing for new shares in San Leon to a maximum of $50 million. San Leon shares were down about 10.5 per cent in early trading yesterday at 23.5p.