THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT FOR
RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN
WHOLE OR IN PART, IN, INTO OR FROM THE UNITED STATES, CANADA,
AUSTRALIA, THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA OR JAPAN OR ANY OTHER
JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A BREACH OF THE
RELEVANT SECURITIES LAWS OF SUCH JURISDICTION.
This announcement does not
constitute a prospectus or offering memorandum or an offer in
respect of any securities and is not intended to provide the basis
for any decision in respect of Tower Resources PLC or other
evaluation of any securities of Tower Resources PLC or any other
entity and should not be considered as a recommendation that any
investor should subscribe for or purchase any such
securities.
16
October 2024
Tower Resources
plc
("Tower"
or the "Company")
Cameroon Farm-out
Update
Placing to raise
£1,188,500
Tower Resources plc (AIM: TRP), the
AIM-listed oil and gas company focused on Africa, is pleased to
provide an update on the farm-out process in respect of its Thali
production-sharing contract in Cameroon (the "PSC").
The Company is also announcing a
placing of 4,401,851,851 ordinary shares of 0.001p each (the
"Subscription Shares") at a price of 0.027p per Placing Share (the
"Placing"), representing a discount of approximately 22.9% to the
closing bid price of the Company's shares on 15 October
2024.
The Placing has been arranged by the
Company's joint broker, Axis Capital Markets Limited.
Cameroon Farm-out Update
The Company has received an updated
proposal from the party whose financing proposal was first
announced together with the Company's Interim Results on 30
September 2024, and is also still in discussions with other parties
and expecting another proposal in due course.
The updated proposal the Company has
received is more detailed and would now provide in excess of US$15
million of funding for the Thali PSC work programme, including
drilling the NJOM-3 well (which is already partly funded), in
return for a minority interest in the PSC, and with Tower remaining
as the Operator. It also provides for future production-based
payments to the Company, a portion of which are committed to
Pegasus Petroleum Limited ("Pegasus", wholly owned by a trust of
which the Company's CEO and Chairman is a lifetime beneficiary)
pursuant to agreements made in 2019 arising from the working
capital facility that Pegasus had provided to the Company at that
time and as announced on 4 March 2021 (the "Production Payment
Agreements").
The proposal has normal conditions
precedent, including the Cameroon Government's approval for the
farm-out and drilling schedule, and the proposal would also require
amending the Production Payment Agreements, which the Company
believes can be agreed. Importantly, the proposal does not contain
any financing contingency as the counterparty has available funds,
and a portion of the funding would be secured by a bank
guarantee.
The Company is presently reviewing
the current proposal and clarifying its terms where appropriate,
and expects to work on detailed contracts with this partner, or one
of the other parties, over the coming weeks. The Company does not
intend to comment further on these negotiations until a final
agreement is reached.
The Company is also continuing its
discussions with African banks about either or both of a short-term
facility to enable earlier production from the NJOM-3 well, and
also a longer-term facility to finance production from the
subsequent wells the Company intends to drill on the Njonji
structure. The Company has now signed a mandate to BDEAC, the
Development Bank of the Central African States, for it to provide a
guarantee in respect of such a facility, following a lengthy
process of due diligence, and that proposal is now being reviewed
at the highest levels of the bank.
While we remain confident of
achieving a positive funding result, there can be no certainty in
respect of the final outcome of discussions or the timing thereof
until we have signed definitive agreements.
Placing
The Placing is being made to fund
working capital, including work commitments on the Company's
licenses. The objective of the Placing is to remove any funding
pressure while the Company concludes its Cameroon farm-out
negotiations, and to allow the Company to keep operational
preparations for drilling the NJOM-3 well moving forward without
delay in the meantime; and also to fund the Company's ongoing work
on the PEL 96 license in Namibia and to a lesser extent the
Algoa-Gamtoos license in South Africa.
The Placing will raise gross
proceeds of £1,188,500 through the issue of 4,401,851,851 ordinary
shares of 0.001p each at a price of 0.027p per Subscription Share,
representing a discount of approximately 22.9% to the closing bid
price of the Company's shares on 15 October 2024.
The Subscription Shares will be
issued in two tranches with a first tranche of 1,243,851,851 shares
("First Tranche Subscription Shares") and a second tranche of
3,158,000,000 shares ("Second Tranche Subscription
Shares").
The Company has agreed to issue the
broker, Axis Capital Markets Limited, warrants over 220,092,592 new
ordinary shares for arranging the Placing ("Broker Warrants"). The
period of the Broker Warrants will be three years at a strike price
of 0.027p per share.
Share Capital following the Subscription
Application has been made for the
Subscription Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is
expected that Admission of the First Tranche Subscription Shares
will become effective and that dealings will commence at 8.00 a.m.
on or around 22 October 2024. It is expected that Admission of the
Second Tranche Subscription Shares will become effective and that
dealings will commence at 8.00 a.m. on or around 6 November
2024.
Following admission of the
Subscription Shares, the Company's enlarged issued share capital
will comprise 22,375,689,275 Ordinary Shares of 0.001p each with
voting rights in the Company. This figure may be used by
shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations
by which they will determine if they are required to notify their
interest in, or a change in the interest in, the share capital of
the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency
Rules.
Warrants and Options in Issue
Following the issue of the Broker
Warrants, and the expiry of 10,990,933 existing warrants, the total
number of warrants in issue is 1,868,424,957 equating to 7.17% of
the Company's enlarged share capital assuming full exercise of all
warrants and options.
Tower Resources Chairman & CEO, Jeremy Asher,
commented:
"We are very pleased with the
progress of the farm-out process and look forward to finalising an
agreement in the near future. Although the Thali farm-out is a key
priority for us, we also want to move forward with our work
programme in Namibia and we must ensure that we can also keep well
planning on track while financing discussions are completed. This
is a very exciting time for the Company."
IMPORTANT NOTICE
This announcement does not
constitute or form part of any offer or invitation to purchase, or
otherwise acquire, subscribe for, sell, otherwise dispose of or
issue, or any solicitation of any offer to sell, otherwise dispose
of, issue, purchase, otherwise acquire or subscribe for, any
security in the capital of the Company in any
jurisdiction.
The information contained in this
announcement is not to be released, published, distributed or
transmitted by any means or media, directly or indirectly, in whole
or in part, in or into the United States or to any US Person. This
announcement does not constitute an offer to sell, or a
solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in the United States or
to any US Person. Securities may not be offered or sold in the
United States absent: (i) registration under the Securities Act; or
(ii) an available exemption from registration under the Securities
Act. The securities mentioned herein have not been, and will not
be, registered under the Securities Act and will not be offered to
the public in the United States.
This announcement does not
constitute an offer to buy or to subscribe for, or the solicitation
of an offer to buy or subscribe for, Ordinary Shares in the capital
of the Company or any other security in any jurisdiction in which
such offer or solicitation is unlawful. The securities mentioned
herein have not been, and the Ordinary Shares will not be,
qualified for sale under the laws of any of Canada, Australia, the
Republic of South Africa or Japan and may not be offered or sold in
Canada, Australia, the Republic of South Africa or Japan or to any
national, resident or citizen of Canada, Australia, the Republic of
South Africa or Japan. Neither this announcement nor any copy of it
may be sent to or taken into the United States, Canada, Australia,
the Republic of South Africa or Japan. In addition, the securities
to which this announcement relates must not be marketed into any
jurisdiction where to do so would be unlawful.
Note regarding forward-looking statements
This announcement contains certain
forward-looking statements relating to the Company's future
prospects, developments and business strategies. Forward-looking
statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as
"targets" "estimates", "envisages", "believes", "expects", "aims",
"intends", "plans", "will", "may", "anticipates", "would", "could"
or similar expressions or the negative of those, variations or
comparable expressions, including references to
assumptions.
The forward-looking statements in
this announcement are based on current expectations and are subject
to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to
differ materially from those expressed or implied by those
statements. These forward-looking statements relate only to the
position as at the date of this announcement. Neither the Directors
nor the Company undertake any obligation to update forward looking
statements, other than as required by the AIM Rules for Companies
or by the rules of any other applicable securities regulatory
authority, whether as a result of the information, future events or
otherwise. You are advised to read this announcement and the
information incorporated by reference herein, in its entirety. The
events described in the forward-looking statements made in this
announcement may not occur.
Neither the content of the Company's
website (or any other website) nor any website accessible by
hyperlinks on the Company's website (or any other website) is
incorporated in, or forms part of, this announcement.
Any person receiving this
announcement is advised to exercise caution in relation to the
Placing. If in any doubt about any of the contents of this
announcement, independent professional advice should be
obtained.
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure
The information contained within
this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside
information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU)
No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of
the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ('MAR'). Upon the
publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service
('RIS'), this inside information is now considered to be in the
public domain.
Contacts:
Tower Resources plc
Jeremy Asher
Chairman & CEO
Andrew Matharu
VP
- Corporate Affairs
|
+44
20 7157 9625
|
BlytheRay
Financial PR
Tim Blythe
Megan Ray
|
+44
20 7138 3204
|
|
|
SP
Angel Corporate Finance LLP
Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker
Stuart Gledhill
Caroline Rowe
|
+44
20 3470 0470
|
Axis
Capital Markets Limited
Joint Broker
Ben Tadd
|
+44
203 026 2689
|
|
|
Novum Securities Ltd
Joint Broker
Jon Bellis
Colin Rowbury
|
+44
20 7399 9400
|
About Tower Resources
Tower Resources plc is an AIM listed
energy company building a balanced portfolio of energy
opportunities in Africa across the exploration and production cycle
in oil and gas and beyond. The Company's current focus is on
advancing its operations in Cameroon to deliver cash flow through
short-cycle development and rapid production with long term upside,
and de-risking attractive exploration licenses through acquiring 3D
seismic data in the emerging oil and gas provinces of Namibia and
South Africa, where world-class discoveries have recently been
made.
Tower's strategy is centred around
stable jurisdictions that the Company knows well and that offer
excellent fiscal terms. Through its Directors, staff and strategic
relationship with EPI Group, Tower has access to decades of
expertise and experience in Cameroon and Namibia, and its joint
venture with New Age builds on years of experience in South
Africa.