Chariot raises over £7m to fund well and gas sales work

Africa-focussed energy company Chariot announced on Friday that it has conditionally raised gross proceeds of $9.5m (£7.1m) to fund its ongoing well and gas sales agreement work.

The AIM-traded firm said the funds were raised through the placing of and subscription for 101,639,842 new shares at 7p each.

In addition to the placing and subscription, the company proposed to raise up to another $2m via an open offer to qualifying shareholders at the issue price, on the basis of one open offer share for every 30 existing shares.

The gross proceeds included $1.5m conditionally raised from some of the company's directors, the board confirmed, as part of the subscription.

It said the placing and subscription shares represented 16.0% of its existing shares capital, with the issue price being a 0.43% discount to its mid-market closing price on 1 December.

Chariot said the net proceeds would be used to re-enter the Anchois-1 discovery well as an additional value-accretive work opportunity, capitalising on a low-cost rig rate secured for the Anchois-2 appraisal campaign, due to spud in December, offshore Morocco.

They would also be used to finalise negotiations of gas sales agreements and financing to “unlock” the final investment decision on Anchois, and progress new ventures on debt-fundable, material producing gas assets focussed in Africa.

Finally, the proceeds would fund a feasibility work programme on a large-scale green hydrogen project in Mauritania, and progress the “rapidly developing” transitional power project pipeline under the firm’s recently-expanded partnership with Total Eren.

“In addition to the ongoing support of our existing shareholders, I am also pleased to welcome a number of new institutions onto the register,” said acting chief executive officer Adonis Pouroulis.

“I can confirm that myself and my fellow directors subscribed for a material amount of the raise, all of which resulted in the fundraise being significantly oversubscribed.

“We recognise our strong retail investor base, and we encourage them to support the business with its growth ambitions via the open offer.”

At 1249 GMT, shares in Chariot were up 3.14% at 7.22p.