(Alliance News) - Bahamas Petroleum Co has raised GBP700,000 after a fund was set up to give local investors the chance to play a part in the company.
The Bahamian incorporated mutual fund was set up late in 2019, for the sole purposes of allowing investors in the Bahamas a chance to buy shares in Bahamas Petroleum which has a "nationally significant" project in the country.
The fund opened to subscriptions on January 6 at a price of 2 pence pence per share, the same price UK investors were given in an open offer and placing in November.
Between opening and closing on Wednesday this week, with the deadline extended from last Friday, investors subscribed for shares worth approximately GBP700,000, meaning Bahamas Petroleum will now issue 35.3 million shares to the fund.
Bahamas Petroleum noted the 2p price is well below its current share price, so it will not be accepting any further subscriptions at that price. An issue price for subscriptions will be fixed for a March 31 subscription at 3.35p, Bahamas Petroleum's closing price on Tuesday in London.
Bahamas Petroleum shares were flat on Friday morning in London at 3.30p each.
"The mutual fund initiative was set up with the straightforward goal of allowing Bahamian investors the opportunity to invest in the outcome of our potentially transformational exploration well, targeting 770 million to 1.44 billion barrels of oil, which is to be drilled in the first half of 2020. An opportunity they would otherwise have effectively been precluded from," said Bahamas Petroleum Chief Executive Simon Potter.
"Further, by offering this opportunity at a subscription price of 2p, potential Bahamian investors have been extended this opportunity under the same conditions as had recently applied to UK investors alike. Accordingly, the fund has and will continue to accomplish its objective, in creating a vehicle through which Bahamian investors can, should they so wish, participate now or in future in the fortunes of the company."
"I would emphasise for all shareholders' benefit that any funds raised from the fund initiative, now and in the future, will be additive to our existing financial resources but are not essential to meeting the estimated costs of drilling, for which costs we have been implementing a staged, coordinated funding strategy, as previously communicated to the market," Potter continued.
By George Collard; georgecollard@alliancenews.com
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