New World Oil & Gas surges as accidental takeover story from 'Chris Oil' rumbles on

Shares in UK oil exploration minnow New World Oil & Gas were up over 100% on Wednesday morning as the story of the company's "accidental takeover" by the son of a country B&B owner rumbled on.

Last week the AIM-listed company issued a "cautionary statement" to try and clarify several issues around its anticipated £1.5m fundraising, including the possibility that an individual shareholder, Judith Mary Williams, owner of a country house near Malvern, Worcestershire, might have accidentally triggering a mandatory bid for the company.

William's son, Chris Williams, an eccentric small-cap oil investor known to his blog followers as 'Chris Oil', has been forced by the London Stock Exchange's Takeover Panel to make a mandatory offer for the company after his bungled attempt to buy 10% of the company post-fundraising left him with a much larger 48.7% pre-fundraising.

The panel ruled that, for the purposes of the Takeover Code, Mrs Williams "will only be treated as interested in the shares that she has purchased in the event of their delivery into the CREST account of her broker...in the event that Mrs Williams receives delivery of shares which carry 30% or more of the voting rights of NWOG, she will then have an obligation to extend an offer... to the shareholders of NWOG and that an offer period will then commence in relation to NWOG."

A purported letter of requisition to the company by the Williams family on Tuesday was rejected by New World's lawyers as invalid.

But a post on the Chris Oil blog later said: "So what happens now well at this point I cannot comment, however good events are about to happen at New World Oil & Gas pushed through by Chris Oil & Daniel Levi Associates.

"The very fact Chris Oil now has a top London Corporate lawyer should be a hint.

"My marble bath in London awaits at the end of the week down in London this means only one thing Chris Oil is on the move again."

New World had on Monday said that due to the level of interest in the company's shares since it announced the placing in April, it "feels appropriate" to open up the offer to all shareholders at the same price as the institutional placing, 0.055p per share.

Full terms of the open offer are expected to be released "in due course", but such a move may allow the company to circumvent an extraordinary general meeting where some shareholders were looking to block the placing.

By 11:06 shares in NEW were up 118% to 0.337p.