RE: SP23 Jul 2020 11:46
To me the most important aspect of present matters is that Essar gave it their best shot at trying to push COPL under when they commenced the court proceedings.
Essar filed the proceedings against COPL on 6-4-2020 which was just after most Western countries entered lockdown, the markets were in turmoil, Dow was plunging, and capital market were in danger of seizing up.
Aside from AM being in Canada and the proceedings being in London, just weeks earlier COPL had shown it was almost impossible for it to raise cash by taking out a $200K loan from the CEO himself, just to keep things ticking over.
Essar were claiming $63M, and no doubt also that COPL would never be in a position to complete its part of the bargain. They were probably hoping for a quick knockout blow in court - all over by May/June - and would have taken the whole of OPL226 in settlement of the $63M, and then applied for a licence extension soley for themselves.
AM somehow cobbled together the £2M funding at 0.07p - Essar had to give up as it was clear they weren't going to get a knock out blow prior to licence expiry, and after the funding Essar knew COPL could give them a run for their money in the courts.
Essar conceded and reached agreement , and subsequently on the back of the agreement COPL has been able to raise £2.5M at 0.3p and also pay off all its debts.
I suspect that COPL will raise further funds, but likely at much higher prices 1p+, once the final legal agreements are signed.
But COPL is immeasurably stronger now than it was at the beginning of April. Essar knows that they have to complete this deal; the time for pushing COPL under, and then getting the licence extended for themselves has long since passed.
Rather than dealing the knock out blow hoped for, the Essar proceedings have actually backfired, and allowed COPL to retake the initiative.
The deal is the only show in town now relating to OPL226, so I'm quite relaxed about matters.
The shares have retested the high .20's again, just as after the previous raisings, and I'm confident we will start edging up again very shortly.
Big prize awaits - for both Essar and COPL.
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