Warrego Energy Limited (WGO) (Warrego) is pleased to announce that it has received commitments for a $15 million two-tranche placement to institutional and sophisticated investors at an offer price of $0.13 per fully paid ordinary new share (“Placement”) under the company’s listing rule 7.1 capacity.
The Placement was oversubscribed with both existing and new institutional investors (located domestically and offshore) participating in the transaction. Proceeds from the Placement will be used to fully fund the drilling of the West Erregulla-3 exploration/appraisal well in 2020, provide funding for long lead items for the West Erregulla-4 exploration/appraisal well, and general working capital.
The Placement will be completed in two tranches, with the second tranche of the Placement subject to shareholder approval at a general meeting of the Company expected to be held in early July 2020 with the Notice of Meeting to be announced this week. The new shares issued under the Placement will rank equally with existing Warrego ordinary shares on issue.
The two tranches comprise:
• Tranche One: 94.9 million shares ($12.3m), expected to settle on 28 May 2020; and
• Tranche Two: 20.5 million shares ($2.7m), expected to settle in early July 2020, following shareholder approval.
Chairman, Greg Columbus, intends to subscribe for $390,000 in the Placement, which is subject to shareholder approval and included in Tranche Two.
The issue price of A$0.13 per share represents a 18.8% discount to WGO’s last closing price of A$0.16 per share on 20 May 2020 and a 15.6% discount to the 15 day VWAP of A$0.154 per share. The Placement was not underwritten. Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited and Bridge Street Capital acted as Joint Lead Managers to the Placement.
Warrego Energy Group CEO & Managing Director, Dennis Donald, said:
“Strong demand from a range of new and existing institutional shareholders and sophisticated investors reflects growing interest in the potential of the West Erregulla gas field following delays in the timing of some large LNG projects offshore Western Australia.”
“We are looking forward to continuing the West Erregulla exploration/appraisal program in 2020/21. A successful WE-3 well could see the prospective resources in the northern area of the field converted to contingent resources and, possibly, the recognition of additional resources. It would also provide a new and more complete data set that could potentially enhance our independent contingent resource estimate for the central area of the field,” he said.
“We are making positive progress in negotiations with potential WA domestic gas buyers. Our recent independent certification by RISC was particularly well received by buyers as it serves to underpin deliverable gas volumes available to us, adding to the momentum of our gas marketing activities,” he said.
“In addition, Warrego has for some time been progressing a range of gas processing options which present low capital opportunities to deliver gas into the WA gas pipeline network. Decisions on gas processing will ultimately be driven by the economics of those opportunities, reflecting the volumes of gas committed under gas sales agreements.” Mr Donald said.
