There’s more mixed news for the shareholders of San Leon, Oisin Fanning’s oil and gas exploration firm, which earlier this month had its listing on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market formally cancelled after six months of suspension.
San Leon has failed to provide a number of documents, including its accounts for 2022, its interim results for the first six months of 2023, and documents related to its investment in a Maltese company called Energy Link Infrastructure. That firm is building a new pipeline which will hopefully open up the OML 18 prospect in Nigeria, in which San Leon also has a stake.
San Leon has been beavering away to secure the funding for that deal, which has caused the delay in filing those various documents. Unfortunately, having failed to meet those regulatory requirements, the company had its listing cancelled.
I appreciate shareholders may be disappointed with today’s cancellation, but in fact it makes no difference to the activities we are undertaking to complete our refinancing
However, Fanning had some reassuring words for any shareholders tearing their hair out, particularly in relation to the tranche of funding necessary to pull off such a major deal.
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The company is within touching distance of substantial fresh investment, partly through a €500 million German government bond, which some unnamed benefactor has allowed Fanning to use a security for fundraising, and partly through its efforts to unlock some cash in a joint venture company it part-owns called Midwestern Leon Petroleum Limited.
In a statement to shareholders, the company said that “discussions have advanced considerably” on both deals and it believed that “funding will be received this month in respect of both”.
When it gets the cash, the company will “settle, in full, the amounts owed to its outstanding creditors” and finalise the corporate restructuring that will allow it to fully exploit the OML prospect.
It also reassured shareholders that just because the company’s listing had been cancelled did not mean it was planning to go silent, and that it would “continue to provide updates for shareholders on its progress”.
Moreover, it said it had plans to “undertake a listing, either in the UK or on an international Stock Exchange, in the second half of this year to restore liquidity for its shareholders”. Fanning, in the statement, said: “I appreciate shareholders may be disappointed with today’s cancellation, but in fact it makes no difference to the activities we are undertaking to complete our refinancing – and, in many respects, may simplify some of the processes.”
Given the long and complex road San Leon has travelled to date, that will no doubt come as a relief to the shareholders.
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