Eco Atlantic gets final clearance for Azinam acquisition

Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas announced on Monday that it has been given final approval for the Azinam acquisition by the TSX Venture Exchange in Toronto.

The TSX-V and AIM-traded company said that as a result, it was now the sole owner of Azinam, and would issue 22,296,300 new shares to Azinam Holdings, representing 9.9% of its enlarged share capital.

It said the issue of the remaining 17,874,174 shares, remained subject to exchange clearance of the personal information forms of the directors of Azinam Holdings, which was expected this week.

Eco Atlantic said the acquisition would result in the total issue of 40,170,474 shares, providing Azinam Holdings with 16.5% of its enlarged share capital and providing for a cashless acquisition to become the sole owner of Azinam's entire African portfolio.

In addition, the company said it expected to receive customary formal acknowledgment from the South African government of the change of control “shortly”.

“We are happy to now officially own Azinam Group and its subsidiaries,” said co-founder and chief executive officer Gil Holzman.

“We now look forward to operating a number of highly prospective licences in three exploration hotspots - Guyana, Namibia and South Africa.”

Holzman said the company was making “strong progress” towards the upcoming drilling of the Gazania-1 well on Block 2B, offshore South Africa, and following the signing of the rig contract earlier in March, it expected drilling to start late in the third quarter.

“We look forward to receiving the final formal acknowledgement from the South African government for the change of control entities and to making further updates on our strategic acreage in due course.”

At 1216 BST, shares in Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas were down 1.25% in London, at 39.5p.