Ascent Resources Regulatory News (AST)

15 Dec 2005 07:01

Ascent Resources PLC15 December 2005 Ascent Resources plc / Epic: AST / Index: AIM / Sector: Oil and Gas 15th December 2005 Ascent Resources plc ("Ascent" or "the Company") Exercise of Warrants Ascent Resources plc, the AIM traded oil and gas exploration and productioncompany, is raising £2,166,620 before expenses to fund the expansion anddevelopment of the Company's European focussed exploration and productionportfolio. The funds have been raised following the agreement of warrant holders toexercise 43,332,418 warrants at a price of 5p per Ordinary Share of the Company.The transaction must be completed by 22nd December 2005. An Incentive Warrantis being issued for each four warrants exercised. These 10,833,104 IncentiveWarrants give the holders the right to subscribe for one Ordinary Share of theCompany per warrant at a price of 12p at any time up to and including 22ndDecember 2007. The expiry date of 4,000,000 warrants issued in March 2005 hasalso been extended to 22nd December 2007. Ascent's Managing Director Jeremy Eng said: "We have made very good progressover the last 10 months and have assembled an exciting portfolio of oil and gasexploration and production projects. The Board decided that it would be a goodtime to raise further funds to assists us in the development of this portfolio.Following our recent strong share price performance, we felt that the warrantexercise route was in the interests of both the Company and its shareholders.It not only provided access to funds but also the opportunity to reduce thenumber of the warrants in issue and to raise the average price of thoseremaining." Application will be made for the admission to trading on AIM of 43,332,418 newAscent Resources plc Ordinary Shares with admission expected to take place on 22December 2005. Following their admission, the total number of shares in issuewill be 256,059,061. * * ENDS * * Contacts: Jeremy Eng Ascent Resources plcTel: 020 7251 4905 Hugo de Salis St Brides Media & Finance Ltd Tel: 0207242 4477 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange