Longboat Energy IPO raises £10m in London debut
Longboat Energy, a new North Sea oil company, today announced it had raised £10m in its initial public offering on London’s AIM.
The company, which is led by the former leadership of Faroe Petroleum, priced the offering at 100p per share.
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Blue-chips Blackrock, Fidelity, Axa and Canaccord participated in the fundraise. Trading is due to begin on Thursday morning.
Longboat, which currently has no assets, will focus on buying oil and gas interests in Norway, the UK and the wider European Economic Area.
The firm is said to expect its first purchase to be worth between $10m and $500m, which would be funded by further issues of shares and debt.
The company said another fundraise was likely in the new year, with a range of $50m to $200m possible.
Helge Hammer, chief executive of the company, said:
“We are delighted with the successful admission of Longboat Energy to trading on AIM and with the support of many large institutional investors including former long term shareholders of Faroe Petroleum.
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“We believe that there is a unique opportunity at present to build a meaningful North Sea company on a relatively short time scale and that our geological expertise, technical understanding across the North Sea, and deep experience throughout the life cycle mean Longboat Energy will be able to identify the right assets with potential to unlock significant value.”
Faroe Petroleum was bought by Norway’s DNO ASA in January for £640m.