Pancontinental announces $50m capital raising

Pancontinental Oil and Gas has announced it will raise $50 million to fund ongoing exploration in Kenya and Namibia.

The Perth-based company said the funds would be raised through a $45 million placement priced at 17.5 cents per share, and a $5 million share purchase plan for existing shareholders, also priced at 17.5 cents.

The placement will be made to clients of Hartleys, which acted as principal broker to the raising.

Pancontinental chief executive Barry Rushworth said the funds would allow the company and its joint venture participants to aggressively move forward with exploration programmes.

The company holds varying-sized stakes in a series of offshore oil and gas exploration licences in Kenya, with a long list of co-venture participants, including Apache Energy, Tullow Oil, Origin Energy, Cove Energy, Premier Oil, BG Group and FAR.

In Namibia, Pancontinental holds an 85 per cent stake in a 17,000 square kilometre licence that is also considered to be highly prospective.

“This capital raising means that Pancontinental will remain in control of its own strategic dircetin and ensures that it continues to maintain its significant interests in its projects in the key east African region,” Mr Rushworth said in a statement.

“The raising maximises Pancontinental’s exposure to success by maintaining its equity levels in these very exciting projects.

“Pancontinental should be fully funded for the next 12 months without recourse to early dilution through farmout.”

At 12:00PM, WST, Pancontinental shares were down 10 per cent, trading at 18 cents.