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(Alliance News) - Empyrean Energy PLC on Friday said it had raised GBP410,950 through a direct subscription but decided to cancel a proposed placing to raise up to a further GBP1 million.
Under the subscription, the oil & gas company said it issued a total of 11.7 million new shares at a price of 3.5 pence each.
The AIM stock closed 6.8% lower in London on Friday at 3.45p a share, giving Empyrean Energy a market capitalisation of GBP15.4 million.
However, the company confirmed that, due to continued volatility in global commodities markets and the effect of a further decline in the price of oil over recent days, it has elected not to proceed with the placing.
More positively, Empyrean Energy said it has received indications of interest from a number of potential investors and confirmed that it plans to launch an open offer to enable all qualifying existing shareholders to subscribe for shares. The company said it will announce details of open offer in the coming days.
Empyrean Energy said it expects that the net proceeds of the subscription will be sufficient to satisfy its share of final costs in relation to the recent drilling in the final quarter of 2019, including post drilling resource updates, and to provide sufficient working capital through to the end of May.
Following the admission, the company will have 459.3 million shares overall.
"Whilst the decision has been made not to proceed with the proposed placing at this time, a number of existing shareholders indicated that they would like to have the opportunity to participate and the company plans to accommodate all shareholders through an open offer and to continue to work with potential new investors," said Chief Executive Tom Kelly.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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