RE: Future6 Aug 2019 16:02
Oil explorer Providence Resources, whose cash levels have slumped 80 per cent to $1.45 million (€1.3 million) so far this year, may need to sell shares or raise debt to progress its key Barryroe oil project off the Cork coast if the Chinese backer of venture fails to deliver initial funds, according to the company’s UK broker.
James McCormack, an analyst with Providence’s UK broker Cenkos Securities, said in a note to clients on Tuesday that Providence is likely to seek to proceed with a site survey of Barryroe so that the project is “drill ready”, even if finance from Chinese firm APEC, which took a 50 per cent stake in the project last year, is not forthcoming.
Funding need
“Without the APEC funding, we believe Providence (and Lansdowne) will still proceed with the Barryroe site survey so that Barryroe is ‘drill ready’,” Mr McCormack said. “To finance this, the company will need to raise funds either via debt or equity”.
Providence has raised $200 million (€178 million) in share sales in the past six years, including $70 million in an emergency equity raise in 2016, some of which was used to cover bill following a dispute with offshore drilling company Transocean. Its market value is currently less than €47 million.
“In lieu of the continued delays from the $10 million loan advance from APEC and the well-site consent [from the Irish Government], we have increased our risking of the Barryroe project,” Mr McCormack said.
Mr McCormack said he sees the timeline for the survey to slip from the third quarter into the final three months of 2019, with drilling itself likely to drift into 2020.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/providence-may-need-to-sell-shares-if-barryroe-funds-not-received-broker-says-1.3978436