Solo Oil raises £2.41m through firm and conditional placings

Solo Oil has raised £2.41m before expenses, it announced on Monday, through a firm placing and conditional placing, with the board also planning an open offer to existing shareholders.

The AIM-traded firm said it issued and allotted 37,883,847 new ordinary shares at a price of 2.25p per share, representing about 8% of its issued share capital prior to admission.

It said the fundraising was by means of a company-sponsored placing , which would raise around £0.85m before expenses.

In addition, Solo Oil confirmed it conditionally placed a further 69,427,000 new ordinary shares at the issue price, representing 14% of its issued share capital prior to admission of the conditional placing shares, but following the admission of the firm placing shares, in the form of a conditional placing.

The company’s board said the allotment of the conditional placing shares was conditional on the passing of resolutions four and five at its annual general meeting being held on Monday.

Should the conditional placing shares be allotted, they would raise a further £1.56m before expenses.

Solo Oil said the issue price represented a discount of around 5% to the closing price on 3 August - the date that the pricing was determined.

Further to its announcement of 13 July in relation to its intention to make an open offer at the same time as a future fundraising, the board added that it also planned to raise up to a further £1.2m by means of an open offer to shareholders.

The board said the open offer would be made at the issue price, and would be available to shareholders of record on a date to be set out in the circular.

It would comprise an allocation of one new ordinary share for each nine shares held by qualifying shareholders at the record date.

“As we enter a phase of intense negotiation on the monetisation of the key assets of the company, we need the capital to safeguard our equity position and negotiate the very best deals for our shareholders,” said Solo Oil chairman-designate Alastair Ferguson.

“I am therefore delighted that the company has been able to secure additional capital at this critical time.”

Ferguson said that, while the raising of that capital was dilutive at the existing shareholder level, it was a “necessary function” to “protect and enhance” the inherent value within the portfolio, with the board hoping that by making an open offer at the same time and at the same price, shareholders would see the merits in supporting the company as it seeked to harvest its technical successes of the last few years.

“This is in line with the commitments that the board set out in the announcement of 13 July.”