Chariot to acquire African mining power developer AEMP

Chariot Oil & Gas has agreed to acquire the business of Africa Energy Management Platform (AEMP) for up to $2m (£1.45m), it announced on Tuesday, payable primarily in Chariot shares representing up to 4% of its to-be-enlarged share capital.

The AIM-traded firm described AEMP as a renewable and hybrid energy project developer, with an ongoing partnership with Total Eren.

French energy multinational Total has a shareholding of around 30%, directly and indirectly, in Total Eren.

AEMP and Total Eren aimed to provide “clean, sustainable, and more competitive” energy to operational mines in Africa, Chariot explained, which represented a largely-untapped market in which Chariot's management had “numerous” contacts.

AEMP had a pipeline of 500MW of Africa mining power projects, with Chariot saying it was also looking to leverage its other significant business interests in multiple mining operations across Africa to grow the pipeline.

The African mining power market was estimated to be around the same size as half of the entire UK power market.

Post-completion, the enlarged group was planning to formally change its name from Chariot Oil & Gas to Chariot Limited, under the tagline of ‘Chariot Transitional Energy’.

“We believe this move will provide Chariot with numerous further valuable, exciting and scalable projects that complement and build on our value accretive transitional gas project in Morocco,” said Chariot’s acting chief executive officer Adonis Pouroulis.

“The acquisition also plays to Chariot's and its managements' significant experience and other business interests within the mining sector in Africa.

“We are already well-advanced in adding to the project pipeline, and we look forward to announcing these when appropriate.”

At 1012 GMT, shares in Chariot Oil & Gas were up 4.81% at 10.35p.