LONDON (Alliance News) - Altona Energy PLC Wednesday said its two joint venture partners in the Arckaringa coal chemical project in Australia are set to make their first contributions to the project after receiving approval from the Australian government, alongside subscribing to shares in the company.
The company said it conducted a meeting with the South Australian government's minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, at which it received approval to transfer the Arckaringa exploration licenses to the joint venture company.
The partners in the project, Wintask Group Ltd and Sino-Aus Energy Group Ltd, will now make their first contributions to the project, totalling AUD6 million into the joint venture company named Arckaringa Coal Chemical Joint Venture Co Pty Ltd.
The partners have committed to contributing a total of AUD33 million to the project, made in staged payments.
The payments are expected to be made within the next 30 days, and once received, drilling operations will commence at the project as planned, Altona said in a statement.
In addition, once the first contributions have been made by the two partners, Wintask and Sino-Aus will subscribe in cash, to the first tranche of 100 million shares at 1.0 pence per share in Altona as per the joint venture agreement to raise an initial GBP1 million. The partners will invest in a total of 200 million shares once the second tranche has been issued.
Under the agreement, Wintask will subscribe to 20 million shares in total, whilst Sin-Aus will subscribe to 180 million, both in two equal tranches. All the shares will be priced at 1.0p, raising an GBP2 million in total.
Following the placing, Sino-Aus will hold a 26.9% stake in Altona, and Wintask will hold a 10.9% stake.
"We are pleased to have received ministerial consent and met the final pre-conditions for the joint venture company within just two months. The joint venture is now in control of its own destiny and we look forward to updating our shareholders with further news and developments of the drilling programme over the coming months," said Altona Chief Executive Michael Zheng.
Altona shares were down 2.8% to 0.972 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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