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(Alliance News) - Empyrean Energy PLC on Tuesday reported double-digit profit growth in the first half of its current financial year and said it is mulling acquisition options.
The stock was 3.6% higher in London on Tuesday morning at 8.50 pence a share.
In addition, the company said it has agreed a GBP10 million equity placement facility with Long State Investment Ltd, a Hong-Kong-based investment firm.
The facility provides Empyrean with a flexible funding facility, it said, and enables it to access capital to fund its ongoing working capital. The timing of drawdown and the minimum issue price of any placement shares are entirely at its discretion.
Under the terms, Empyrean said it may place new shares with Long State up to a total of GBP10 million over the next 24 months. Empyrean may draw in tranches of up to GBP200,000 in any period of 20 trading days. A commission of 5% is payable to Long State on any drawdowns.
In addition to securing the facility, Empyrean said it has received indications of interest from potential investors and is currently exploring undertaking a potential placing of new shares to provide additional short-term working capital.
"While the company continues to progress various strategic and funding alternatives, the signing of the facility with Long State provides us with further funding flexibility by enabling access to capital when and if required, with the timing and minimum pricing at Empyrean's discretion," said Chief Executive Tom Kelly.
Turning back to results, the AIM-listed oil & gas development company said pretax profit grew by 42% to USD888,000 in the six months to the end of September compared to USD625,000 reported a year earlier. Empyrean Energy did not generate any revenue in either year.
During the first-half, the company said it continued to make progress on its portfolio of exploration projects, primarily in China and Indonesia.
In California, US, Empyrean Energy said, the ongoing technical evaluation is now near completion to determine the future drilling programme for 2020.
Looking ahead, Empyrean Energy said it continues to assess other acquisition opportunities in parallel with the current activities and will also evaluate any attractive divestment opportunities in due course.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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