Oz Strike to Raise $9mn through Placement

Australian Strike Energy has received binding commitments which will see it raise the A$13 million ($9.21mn) which is a condition in its bid to takeover Perth Basin-focused UIL Energy, the company said October 24.

“Strike Energy is now in a strong position to execute drilling of the West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin in early 2019, targeting a material conventional gas reservoir similar in nature to the neighbouring Waitsia gas field,” Strike’s managing director Stuart Nicholls said.

“Strike is also funded to see Jaws-1 through the production testing phase towards the declaration of commercial success at the Southern Cooper Basin Gas Project,” he added.

The capital raising, which came by way of a placement of new shares involving international and local institutional and professional investors, is a condition in the takeover arrangement with UIL which was announced October 22.

Strike expects the settlement of the placement to take place on or about October 30. The UIL offer is scheduled to close November 30 unless extended.

The company also announced October 24 a share purchase plan to raise up to A$5mn, providing all existing eligible shareholders of Strike the opportunity to apply for discounted shares.

Strike will issue 113,043,500 new shares at an issue price of A$0.115 to the institutional and professional investors. And, the share purchase plan will involve the issue of up to 43,478,261 new shares at an issue price of A$0.115. It represents a 19.8% discount to the five-day volume weighted average price of Strike’s shares traded on the Australian Stock Exchange prior to the record date.