Socius Share Placing For Xcite Energy
British oil exploration and development company Xcite Energy has secured access to £85.8 million in new capital, with £25.8 million of the money being raised through a share placing arranged by a subsidiary of the Bermuda-based Socius Capital Group.
The remaining £60 million will be made available through an equity credit line facility.
Based in Bermuda, Socius and its subsidiaries invests in emerging growth companies in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia.
“Against a challenging economic backdrop, we are very pleased to have further strengthened our balance sheet as we move forward with the field development plan towards first oil,” said Xcite chief executive Richard Smith.
The placing been arranged by by the Socius subsidiary will be completed in two tranches.
In the first tranche 15.1 million units, comprising one share and half a warrant, are being issued to Socius at a price of 85 pence. This will raise £12.9 million for Xcite.
The second tranche will provide a further £12.9 million. The remaining shares will be issued at any time between eight to twelve weeks from today.
The price that those shares will be issued at will be linked to the share price at that time. This will be the 20-day volume weighted annual price [VWAP] as calculated two days prior to closing the second tranche.
The equity credit facility is being provided by a co-investor of Socius, called Esousa Holdings.
Xcite says the arrangement allows it to draw down fund from time to time, at its sole discretion, over a period of three years.
These shares will be issued at a price based on existing market conditions at the time of each drawdown, subject to the private placement pricing parameters of the Toronto’s Venture Exchange.
