(Alliance News) - Solo Oil PLC on Friday said its loss widened in the first half of 2019, hurt by a more than doubling of general & administrative expenses.
Shares in Solo were up 4.9% at 2.15 pence in London in late morning trade.
The natural resources investor's pretax loss for the six months ended June 30 was GBP800,000, widening from GBP514,000 the year before. Most significant in this loss was the steep rise in general & administrative expense to GBP776,000 from GP344,000.
During the period, Solo disposed of its 30% interest in PEDL331 on the Isle of Wight and promoted non-executive director Alastair Ferguson to the role of executive chair.
Since then, it has further altered its board, with a new chief operating officer and new chief financial officer joining the company.
Solo plans to achieve net production of at least 5,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in three years.
Ferguson said: "The company has made further significant steps in the first half of 2019 towards its strategic goals with the additional rationalisation of its portfolio and strengthening of the management team to prepare the company for a period of what we hope to be defined as strong growth and value creation."
"The work carried out to date in monetising the company's non-core assets provides us with a strong balance sheet enabling the board and management a platform to execute a strategic vision focused on returning value for shareholders," Ferguson added. "We aim to establish this company as a mid-cap E&P underpinned by high quality assets and solid cash flow. Furthermore, we feel confident that we have the right team and strategy in place to achieve these ambitious objectives within our stated timeframes."
The chair also forecast that the second half of 2019 will "be a transformative period" for solo oil.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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