Result of GM

RNS Number : 5249C

Plexus Holdings Plc

28 June 2016

 

Plexus Holdings PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: POS / Sector: Oil equipment & services

 28 June 2016

Plexus Holdings PLC ("Plexus" or "the Company")

Result of General Meeting &

Update on progress in relation to equipment supply opportunities within Russia

Plexus Holdings PLC, the AIM quoted oil and gas engineering services business and owner of the proprietary POS-GRIP® friction-grip method of wellhead engineering, is pleased to announce that all resolutions proposed at the General Meeting of the Company (the "Resolutions"), held earlier today, were duly passed.

Background

The Company announced on 13 June 2016 the agreed terms of a conditional placing to raise £6,000,000 before expenses (the "Placing"), through the issue of 9,230,770 new Ordinary Shares ("Placing Shares") at a price of 65 pence per Ordinary Share to new and existing investors.

The Placing is intended to strengthen Plexus' balance sheet during the current down cycle and to provide Plexus with the flexibility to support the capital requirements of its long term strategy of becoming a leading international oil and gas services company, supplying a new and superior standard of wellhead equipment and associated products for exploration, production and subsea applications.

The proceeds of the Placing will be applied across a number of the Company's areas of activity to ensure that Plexus is well placed to take advantage when sector activity resumes. In particular, the Board believes that the net proceeds of the Placing will enable Plexus to:

·     pursue existing global opportunities (beyond the Company's on-going North Sea operations) and to continue to support Plexus' target activities in new regions - Asia, Russia and North/South America;

·     progress the Python Subsea Wellhead development programme towards a target trial before the end of 2016;

·     support on-going development of POS-GRIP product suite (including production and subsea applications);

·     strengthen Plexus' working capital position during the down cycle; and

·     channel targeted R&D spend towards complementary products (such as WellTree^TM, Xmas Trees) and the decommissioning market.

Update on progress in relation to equipment supply opportunities within Russia 

The Company is pleased to report that its recently appointed Russian licensee partner, LLC Gusar (OOO Gusar) Ltd ('Gusar'), continues to make important progress regarding manufacturing and marketing Plexus wellhead designs and related products into the Russian Federation and the other CIS states oil and gas markets ("the Territories"). 

At last week's St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia's major oil and gas company, Gazprom Neft, announced that it had signed strategic partnership agreements with, amongst others, Gusar, to procure a range of import-substituting technologies and equipment necessary for the exploration and development of Russia's continental shelf.  As part of its plans to explore Russia's continental shelf, Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of Gazprom, has indicated that it is intending to allocate at least 90% of its costs towards purchasing equipment from Russian providers. 

Plexus is encouraged by the signing of the partnership agreement between Gusar and Gazprom Neft, and views this as a positive development which it hopes will lead to Gusar becoming a supplier of equipment, including licenced Plexus wellhead designs, to Gazprom Neft in the future. 

Admission of Placing Shares to Trading on AIM

Following the passing of the Resolutions, the Placing will now proceed to completion.  Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"), with Admission expected to become effective at 8.00 a.m. on 29 June 2016.

Following Admission, the Company's total issued and voting share capital will comprise 105,386,239 Ordinary Shares.  This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculation to determine whether a notification of interest, or change in interest, in securities of the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules is required.

Ben van Bilderbeek, CEO of Plexus, commented "Plexus is an IP driven oil and gas engineering services company that has long been the dominant supplier to blue chip operators such as Statoil and Total of superior jack-up wellhead equipment for the most challenging HP / HT wells in the North Sea.  We want to replicate this success on a global scale and the funds raised will help us achieve this goal by allowing us to pursue larger market sectors such as land and platform, and subsea applications.  I would therefore like to thank our valued shareholders for supporting the Board's vision and formally approving today the £6m raise we announced on 13 June 2016.   

"At its core, our offering has always been based on our firm view that a key requirement for wellheads and seals is that they are not the weak link in the well architecture chain and therefore that qualification standards for casing hangers and annular seals are aligned with those for casings and tubing couplings.  We developed our patent protected POS GRIP technology with this in mind and as a result, Plexus has been able to uniquely deliver a much higher standard of equipment than conventional technology for use on over 400 wells worldwide.

"The funds we have raised will allow us to support our growth strategy to build our activities beyond the North Sea. This strategy has seen us secure licensing agreements with local operators in the large Chinese and Russian markets and form a joint venture company in Malaysia, which has been granted a local licence with Petronas.  We can now continue to invest in both our technology and products during the current oil and gas down cycle, and support our new partners in overseas markets such as Russia so that we are well placed for when the cycle picks up.

"In this regard, we are delighted with Gusar's ongoing efforts to introduce Plexus' equipment to major Russian companies operating in the significant Russian market.  Plexus' relationship with Gusar has accelerated since we signed the initial licence agreement in January; not only has Gusar become an investor in Plexus, but it has also extended the agreement to cover the larger, Russian surface land and platform production wellhead equipment markets.

"According to the US Energy Information Administration, Russia was ranked the third largest producer of petroleum and other liquids in 2014 and was estimated to hold almost a quarter of the world's proven natural gas reserves.  Meanwhile, future Russian Arctic offshore reserves have been estimated at 1.69 billion tons of oil and 13.19 trillion cubic meters of gas.

"As well as its size, the Russian market represents a significant opportunity for Plexus thanks to a number of key structural drivers: activity in the Russian land and platform production sector remains buoyant as major operators focus on drilling wells to maintain / increase output; Russia's active import replacement programme focused on developing and manufacturing its own equipment in-country; and our best in class wellhead equipment being ideally suited to the challenging conditions of gas exploration and production, which accounts for the vast majority of the Russian energy sector. 

"We believe Plexus' superior technology combined with Gusar's local manufacturing and marketing capabilities represent a powerful combination for winning market share in Russia. We are therefore delighted to be working with Gusar and look forward to developing the relationship further and working with them to maximise the opportunities associated with their signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Gazprom Neft."

**ENDS**

For further information please visit www.posgrip.com or contact:

Ben van Bilderbeek	Plexus Holdings PLC	Tel: [phone]
Graham Stevens	Plexus Holdings PLC	Tel: [phone]
Nick Tulloch	Cenkos Securities PLC	Tel: [phone]
Derrick Lee	Cenkos Securities PLC	Tel: [phone]
Frank Buhagiar	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Isabel de Salis	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]

NOTES:

Plexus Holdings PLC

Plexus Holdings PLC, which began trading on AIM in December 2005, is an oil and gas engineering and services business, which supplies wellhead and mudline suspension equipment together with associated equipment and services for exploration and production applications. Based in Aberdeen, with offices in London, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and a presence in Houston, Texas, it has developed and patented a friction-grip method of engineering for oil and gas field wellheads and connectors, POS-GRIP®, which involves deforming one tubular member against another to effect gripping and sealing.

The Company plans to accelerate the roll out of POS-GRIP wellhead equipment as a superior alternative to current technology and for it to become the future industry standard for wellhead design. In particular, the technology has advantages in High Pressure/High Temperature (HP/HT) and Extreme HP/HT (X-HP/HT) oil and gas environments, for which there is growing global demand and where Plexus is being increasingly recognised as the supplier of choice.

To date, POS-GRIP wellhead systems have been used or selected to be used in over 350 oil and gas wells by international companies including ADTI, AGR, Apache Energy Australia, BHP Billiton, BG International, BP, Brunei Shell Petroleum, Cairn Energy, Centrica, ConocoPhillips, Dana Petroleum, Dubai Petroleum, ENI, GDF SUEZ, Global Santa Fe, Maersk, Niko Resources, Petro-Canada Trinidad & Tobago, Premier Oil Norge, Red Sea Petroleum Operating Company, Repsol, RWE, Senergy Limited, Shell China, Shell Egypt, Statoil, Silverstone Energy, Talisman Energy, Total, Tullow Oil, and Wintershall.

Importantly, the Company is focussed on extending its proprietary POS-GRIP technology into an increasing number of subsea applications. In line with this, in March 2011 the Company launched a Joint Industry Project ('JIP') initiative to develop a new subsea wellhead design, the 'Python Subsea Wellhead' utilising its friction-grip technology in collaboration with key oil and gas operators and service companies. BG, Royal Dutch Shell, Wintershall, Maersk, TOTAL, Tullow Oil, ENI, Senergy, ADTI and Oil States Industries Inc. The JIP is nearing completion with final qualification testing of all key features of the product under way, and the resultant Python Subsea Wellhead design will include a combination of key features never before seen in a subsea wellhead which include being rated to 15,000 psi, 4,000,000 pounds of 'instant' casing lockdown capacity, and importantly rigid metal annular seal technology qualified to match the performance of premium connectors. The building of a single string Python Subsea Wellhead system prototype commenced in February, and was launched at the SPE Offshore Europe Exhibition and Conference in Aberdeen ('OE2015') in September 2015.

Plexus is an innovative technology company always looking for opportunities to apply its proprietary POS-GRIP friction grip method of engineering to new products both within and outside the oil and gas industry. For example Plexus have recently completed a JIP in conjunction with Maersk to develop a downhole HPHT Tieback connector which for the first time allows the reconnection of production casing to HPHT exploration and production wells. In addition the Company has developed and qualified a new product called POS-SET Connector™ which is designed to re-establish a connection onto rough conductor casing previously cut above the seabed to facilitate tieback or abandonment operations. The market for permanent plugging and abandonment of wells is increasing in the North Sea and beyond, and could be an important new revenue stream for the Company.

 

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