Lfeaccetfusd Regulatory News (FEP)

1 Sep 2008 16:51



1 September 2008 

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF SUCH JURISDICTION.

Forum Energy Plc 

("Forum Energy" or the "Company")

Offer Update

Notifiable Interest

GSEC101 Update

Directors' Dealings

Offer Update

On 19 August 2008, Philex Petroleum Corporation ("PPC") announced that the mandatory cash offer by PPC for Forum Energy (the "Offer") at 48 pence per Forum Energy Share (the "Offer Price") had become unconditional. Further to this announcement, on 29 August 2008 it was announced that PPC and members of its concert party had an interest in 15,887,279 ordinary shares of Forum Energy, representing 54.8 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company.

Notifiable Interest

The Board announces that it received notification on 1 September 2008 that on 29 August 2008, following the acquisition of shares in Forum Energy, Wellington Asset Management Limited now has an interest in 5,594,579 ordinary shares of 10p each in Forum Energy, representing approximately 19.28% of the issued share capital of the Company.

GSEC101 Update

Further to the announcement made on 5 August 2008, in which the board of Forum (the "Board") reported that it had been notified in writing by the Philippines Department of Energy (the "DoE") that the service contract to be entered into under the GSEC101 licence was in its final draft and that it was planned that formal signing of the service contract would take place in the third week of August 2008, the Board has today become aware that the signing of the service contract by the DoE may be delayed further. The Board have received no new information on when the GSEC101 service contract will be signed by the DoE.

Directors' Dealings

As a consequence of the above,  Alan Henderson, Forum Energy's Chairman and acting Chief Executive Officer, has today notified the Board that he intends to accept the Offer in respect of his own beneficial holding of 5,000 Forum Energy Shares (representing 0.02 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company) and that he intends to exercise his options, pursuant to the Forum Energy Share Option Plan, to acquire 50,000 Forum Energy Shares at 31 pence per Forum Energy Share and to accept the Offer in respect of these shares.  Following this dealing Alan Henderson will hold no Forum Energy Shares and will have options over 222,000 Forum Energy Shares (all of which are exercisable at prices above the Offer Price).

Andrew Mullins, Executive Director, and the Forum Energy Employee Benefit Trust have notified the Board today of their intention to exercise options, pursuant to the Forum Energy Long Term Incentive Plan, to acquire 418,749 Forum Energy Shares and to accept the Offer in respect of these shares. Andrew Mullins has also notified the Board today of his intention to exercise his options, pursuant to the Forum Energy Share Option Plan, to acquire 100,000 Forum Energy Shares at 31 pence per Forum Energy Share and to accept the Offer in respect of these shares. Following this dealing Andrew Mullins will hold no Forum Energy Shares and will have options over 250,000 Forum Energy Shares (all of which are exercisable at prices above the Offer Price).

In addition, the Board has been notified today by Barry Stansfield, Non-Executive Director, of his intention to exercise his options, pursuant to the Forum Energy Share Option Plan, to acquire 30,000 Forum Energy Shares at 31 pence per Forum Energy Share and to accept the Offer in respect of these shares. Following this dealing Barry Stansfield will hold options over 79,000 Forum Energy shares (all of which are exercisable at prices above the Offer Price).

The Offer will remain open for acceptance until 1.00 p.m. on 10 September 2008 and any Forum Energy Shareholders and Optionholders who would like to accept the Offer and the proposals put forward to Optionholders should do so to ensure that their acceptances are received no later than 1.00 p.m. on 10 September 2008. Following this date, unless further extended, Forum Energy Shareholders and Optionholders will be unable to accept the Offer and the proposals put forward to Optionholders respectively.

Forum Energy's directors had previously received dispensation from the AIM Team to accept the Offer in respect of options held under the Forum Energy Share Option Plan and Long Term Incentive Plan on 18 August 2008.

For further information please contact: 

Alan Henderson Tel: +44 (0)1932 445 344

Forum Energy Plc, Chairman and acting Chief Executive Officer 

Nick Naylor / Brian Stockbridge / Jamie Boyd Tel: +44 (0)20 7763 2200 

Noble & Company Ltd, Nominated Adviser & Broker

Or visit the Company's website:

www.forumenergyplc.com

Responsibility Statement

The Board accept responsibility for the information contained in this announcement and, to the best of the Board's knowledge and belief (having taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case), the information contained in this announcement is in accordance with the facts and does not omit anything likely to affect the import of such information.