Lekoil shares suspended after Qataris question loan

Shares in Lekoil have been suspended after doubts were raised about the validity of a loan agreement supposedly struck with the Qatari Investment Authority.

Lekoil announced at the start of the month that it had struck a $184m financing deal with the sovereign wealth fund, thereby securing funding for the appraisal drilling in the Ogo field off the cost of Nigeria. Shares in the company soared on the announcement.

The seven-year facility was due to be disbursed in five tranches over 11 months, with the first drawdown due in February.

But on Monday, Lekoil said that the QIA has since approached it "questioning the validity" of the loan. Sources at the QIA reported having no knowledge of talks or of the loan, according to specialist website Energy Voice and the Financial Times.

"Lekoil is urgently seeking to establish, alongside its legal counsel and nominated advisor, the full facts of this matter, and pending this clarification, the company has requested that its ordinary shares be suspending from trading on Aim with immediate effect," Lekoil said in a statement.

Lekoil added that it had so far paid out $600,000 "in good faith" to Seawave Invest, which introduced the company to people purporting to be from the QIA.

Seawave is a consultancy based in Accra, Ghana, that specialises in Africa-focused cross-border transactions. It has so far declined to comment, including hanging up the phone on the Financial Times.

Shares in Lekoil closed yesterday at 940p, having started the month at 465p.