LONDON (Alliance News) - Ascent Resources PLC Thursday said it now has enough cash to keep the company going until next year after raising further funds by issuing shares at a discounted price yet again.
Ascent has raised a net total of GBP500,000 after issuing 83.3 million new shares at a price of 0.6 pence each to Henderson Global Investors.
The equity raise comes only nine days after Ascent issued the exact same amount of shares at the exact the same price through online funding platform Primarybid.com.
Notably, the 0.6 pence issue price was more than a 29% discount to the company's shares on May 31, the day before the raise through Primarybid, which sent shares down.
That is demonstrated by the shares that were issued at 0.6 pence on Thursday, as they are a priced at a smaller discount, priced 7.7% lower than Ascent's closing share price on Wednesday.
Ascent shares were trading up 7.7% to 0.7 pence per share on Thursday morning.
Notably, both sets of shares have significantly increased the company's share capital - with the tranche issued Thursday representing around 16.2% of the company's enlarged issued share capital.
Overall, the 166.7 million shares that have been issued since the start of this month represent around 32.4% of the company's enlarged issued share capital - which has risen to 514.9 million shares from 348.2 million shares at the end of last month.
The shares raised on June 1 were set to keep the company funded until the end of September, but Ascent now has enough funds to last the rest of the year following the equity raise on Thursday.
"These funds [raised Thursday] are expected to meet the company's current working capital requirements into 2017 and enable the company to continue to order long lead items required for the alternative route to market," said the company.
Ascent is trying to find a solution to the problems it has encountered trying to secure an integrated pollution prevention & control permit (IPPC) for the gas treatment plant it wants to build in Slovenia.
Ascent is determined to accomplish its goal of delivering gas in 2016 from its field in Slovenia through an alternative route to market that is independent of the traditional IPPC application process because it believes it is "cheaper and quicker".
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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Ascent Resources (AST)