Crystal Amber says Hurricane Energy has weighed on its share price

AIM-listed Crystal Amber Fund said on Friday that the recent drop in its share price primarily reflects the decline in the shares of its largest investment, Hurricane Energy.

The fund, which holds 150m shares in Hurricane at an average cost of 23p each, attributed the decline in the stock mostly to the poor handling of its warrant issue announced on 12 May and comments at its AGM on 7 June, which referred to the near-term focus being on funding and delivering the Early Production System.

"As Hurricane's largest independent shareholder owning 12.2% of the issued share capital, Crystal Amber is supportive of monetising Hurricane's assets, which are valued by Crystal Amber's external consultants who have been its consultants for the last two years, on a NPV10 basis and assuming a $55/bbl flat nominal oil price and that contingent resources 'trade' at a discount to reserves by 50%, at 219p a share.

"The fund also notes comments at the AGM regarding the reopening of Hurricane's data room to a limited number of oil companies that have the requisite development credentials to take the Rona Ridge project to full field development. The fund also believes in the strategic value of Hurricane's asset base."

Crystal Amber also holds warrants over 23.3m shares exercisable at 20p each.