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It's not surprising in context though. HE1 needed the cash to continue their operations. For undisclosed reasons, the Colorado project was significantly underbudgeted or overspent before reaching first production. The Rukwa project CPR came in short of proven gas reserves. They clearly didn't have any choice but to go to the market and seek whatever terms the broker could muster from short term debt funds. It's tough but that's why high risk pre-revenue companies list on AIM, to gain access to equity capital that they can't raise anywhere else. If it works out then they'll be fully funded for the next operational phase and debt free.

Indeed, and the last CEO interview hasn't aged well in the part where she talks about the investors as shareholders. It would be quite surprising if anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the small handful of actors who work with Marex on AIM CLN capital events spoke so naively, and there are people on HE1's board who should know without the need for any introduction.

LB - "The investors that are part of this raise were introduced to us by Marex Financial. We know that they have worked together on a number of previous deals. We've met those principles in person and the funds. We certainly welcome them as new shareholders to the company and I'm sure in time they'll make those necessary disclosure requirements, when appropriate."

…I mean, you were at the voting meeting and you were very convinced not to sell any shares yourself and were led to believe the CLN holders would never sell at such a low price as 0.9p (at least that was your opinion posted here). Were you misled or did you misunderstand? Or were the board misled by the investors?

MC - “They had their reasons why they preferred the CLN option...”

What were those reasons and were they disclosed to shareholders prior to voting?

There is no sense in trying to value BNL or HE1 by mcap at this stage in their pre-revenue early development. They have a short term speculative value largely based on market risk and sentiment. When they are revenue generating businesses then fundamentals will be more relevant to valuation. Generating first gas revenues from Colorado will be a significant milestone.

They presented that option (unpriced) and shareholders voted for the CLN

Seriously Ben, 53m shares averaging 0.62p at a cost of more than £380k, in a pre revenue AIM exploration company whose only access of capital was an unprotected CLN debt facility? And you watched that fall more than £180k? Why?

The approach is fairly clear and very normal for this kind of debt structure. They’ll probably keep forward selling tranches of £1-2m each time. If there’s increased demand for shares they’ll do them faster, which could happen with more news. Next tranche should get us past half way anyway.

I’m really not interested in the price. I’m interested in when the debt facility will be cleared. The conversion price available to the CLN holders continues to reduce, as expected. The pace of share distribution has slowed down, allowing the price to stabilise, which is a good thing, if it calms the market and reduces dilution for holders. If operational news generates new demand liquidity then hopefully they can speed up again.

No, it doesn’t mean that. You’re over thinking the significance of mcap for AIM shares which often trade on a sentiment basis. The sentiment is not so much about the company’s chance of failure as simply the chance of the share price going down rather than up during the CLN conversion process. The speed and volume of conversions is more indicative of market demand/belief than the price. The price will probably go down anyway but if the conversions speed up that suggests increasing buyer demand for the shares.

As primary broker for the CLN holders, MREX will manage inventory to support the distribution of shares as actively as possible while maintaining an orderly market. When there's additional demand liquidity they'll open up the tap and on quieter days they choke it back. The anticipated news flow should help to generate new trade volume and once they get past the half way point there should be more speculative interest in the shares. The price makes no difference to the CLN holders, they just trade percentage, but they do need the market to be sustainable so periods of price stabilisation help with that. Available conversion price still hovering under 0.23p so they're still making more than 20% on paper for current sells at 0.28p.

Of course they’re not bidding. They need to distribute hundreds of millions of shares to the market not accumulate.

With respect Mark, that's magical thinking at best. We're not quite half way yet and they are likely to continue derisking their loans as quickly as the broker can manage demand, so it's more a question of allowing periods of price stabilisation, selling into news flow, and balancing the distribution of shares against market liquidity.

They will but how quickly and at what price will depend on liquidity in the market.

MC - “TR1 are a regulatory requirement, it cannot fall under a Non-Disclosure Agreement, that would be illegal and unenforceable.”

you also believe that the hundreds of millions of shares being distributed to the market over the past six weeks are actually being bought and held by a mystery buyer. How do you explain these conflicting beliefs?

Beverage grade CO2 is a bigger revenue earner too, although it will require a steady, strong and balanced flow rate from the wells into the processing (which may be why they need the infill wells).

“ I inspected all our shut-in production wells and reviewed the surveying for the gathering system, plant site, and the next phase of infill drilling.”

The last part is particularly encouraging, also good to see markers on the ground, although it would be good to see a schedule and maybe a rough budget split between the existing and new parts of the plan (and what is now fully funded).

Naming the broker and not disclosing the finance partners is entirely normal for a CLN structure like this. The idea that these three funds would become shareholders is counterfactual. They are clearly selling the shares, they are not holding the shares. Maybe to rephrase my part, I do agree that the CEO was very generous towards the investors in the terms of her interview. However, proof of the pudding is in the eating. I do find it hard to believe a company with HE1's expertise in capital markets would be led down the garden path by the broker unknowingly so you have to question some of the public presentation.

LB - "The investors that are part of this raise were introduced to us by Marex Financial. We know that they have worked together on a number of previous deals. We've met those principles in person and the funds. We certainly welcome them as new shareholders to the company and I'm sure in time they'll make those necessary disclosure requirements, when appropriate."

Wimbledon - "although they may be de risking which has bought us much pain the the 3 have been confirmed as 'investors' and IMVHO will be holding a stake in HE1, Indeed LB confirmed this in a recent interview"

With all due respect, this is fantasy posting. It's a broker built short term CLN debt structure for a pre-revenue AIM company without recourse to other sources of capital. If they were 'investors' in your sense of the word then it would have been a normal book built share placement. The fact that it isn't, and the typical way it has been executed, is all you need to know. The CEO hasn't said anything of the kind, although I agree the announcement of an 'investor agreement' is open to ambiguous interpretation but I wouldn't really blame the company for framing it in those terms.

Usually this type of debt would be monetised as quickly as possible by selling shares as quickly as the market can absorb them, basically as many as the broker can handle in an orderly way. That’s been done in a series of tranches in the range £1-2m, which again looks normal. When liquidity dries up they slow down, when it increases, like on news, they can speed up. It doesn’t matter what the price is as long as they can make 20-30% profit.