Lekoil Raises $97 Mln to Fund Offshore Exploration in Nigeria

Lekoil, the oil and gas exploration and development company with a focus on Nigeria and West Africa, announces, further to the announcement made yesterday afternoon, that it has entered into a placing agreement  with Mirabaud Securities LLP and has conditionally raised, in aggregate, gross proceeds of approximately US$100 million(approximately £62 million) through the placing of, in aggregate, 113,282,000 new Ordinary Shares at a placing price of 55 pence per Ordinary Share (the “Placing Price”) with certain existing and new institutional and other investors via an accelerated book-build.

The net proceeds of the Placing are estimated to be US$97 million (approximately £60 million) and will be used to fund the completion of drilling and testing of the Ogo-1 well and Ogo-1 ST, the future development of the OML113 licence offshore Nigeria, which contains the Aje Field, as well as for general corporate and working capital purposes, including the full repayment of the loan facility that the Company has entered into with Afren.

The Placing, which has been conducted by Mirabaud, acting as sole bookrunner and Ladenburg Thalmann, acting as US Placing Agent, pursuant to the terms and conditions as set out in Appendix I to yesterday’s announcement, is conditional, inter alia, on Admission.

The Placing will be conducted in two stages, with the First Placing Shares being placed using the Directors’ existing authority to allot shares for cash on a non pre-emptive basis, as granted at Lekoil’s most recent EGM, and the Second Placing Shares being placed conditionally upon, inter alia, the passing of the Resolutions at the Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on 21 November 2013. A circular convening the Extraordinary General Meeting will be sent to shareholders shortly (the “Circular”).

Application will be made for the First Placing Shares and the Second Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and it is currently expected that trading in the First Placing Shares and the Second Placing Shares will commence on 6 November 2013 and 22 November 2013 respectively.

Following admission to trading of the First Placing Shares, the Company will have 238,291,233 Ordinary Shares in issue. Following the issue of the Second Placing Shares, the Company will have 329,906,233 Ordinary Shares in issue.

Olalekan Akinyanmi, Chief Executive Officer of Lekoil, said: “This equity raise reflects Lekoil’s success in implementing the strategy, set out at the time of our IPO in May this year, to build a business focused initially on West Africa and diversified in terms of exploration, appraisal and near term production. I am delighted that our existing and new shareholders have responded so positively and look forward to continuing to grow our Company for the benefit of all shareholders and stakeholders.”

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Press Release, November 01, 2013