19th May 2017
Echo Energy plc
("ECHO" or the "Company")
Signature of £10,000,000 Institutional Placing at Nil Discount
Further to the announcements on 18 April 2017 and 5 May 2017, Echo Energy is delighted to announce that Pegasus A. Fund Ltd. SAC ("Pegasus"), a Bahamas based institutional investor have today agreed, subject to shareholder approval at shareholder meeting on 22 May 2017, to subscribe together with investors it introduces, for 2,469,135,802 new ordinary shares ("Subscription Shares") at a price of GBP 0.004050 per share to raise gross proceeds of approximately GBP 10,000,000 (the "Placing"), being the mid-market price at the close of business on 18 May 2017 (being prior to the Company's announced share consolidation). In addition, the Company has agreed to issue 1,234,567,901 five-year warrants to Pegasus, each with an exercise price of GBP 0.006075 per warrant (150% of the issue price) on completion of the Placing.
The arrangement with Pegasus will complete after 15 business days at which point the Company will arrange for admission of the Subscription Shares to trading on AIM, further details of which will be released presently. Pegasus will have the right to procure other institutional placees to subscribe for some of the Subscription Shares. The proceeds of the Placing shall not be less than £10,000,000. As part of these arrangements, the Company is paying a 10% commission.
As announced on 15 May 2017, the Company has agreed to issue warrants in favour of Greenberry plc ("Greenberry") as part of the institutional funding described in that announcement. The Company and Greenberry have now agreed that the exercise price of those warrants will be GBP 0.006075.
This adjustment to the price of the warrants issued Greenberry is a related party transaction for the purposes of the AIM rules. The independent directors (as described in the announcement of 15 May 2017) having consulted with the Company's Nominated Adviser, ZAI Corporate Finance Limited, consider the terms of the transaction fair and reasonable in so far shareholders are concerned.
James Parsons, Chairman, commented:
"We are delighted to confirm the last of an initial phase of institutional investment in Echo which now positions the Company for its planned near term acquisitions in Central and South America. This investment is a further endorsement of our recently announced strategy, with our new investors seeing as we do the very real opportunities in the current asset market to add material value rapidly to the business. We are excited about the potential transactions we are pursuing in our effort to become a mid-cap Latin American exploration company and look forward to updating the market on our progress in due course."
For further information please contact:
Echo Energy
James Parsons, Chairman j.parsons@echoenergyplc.com
Greg Coleman, Chief Executive Officer g.coleman@echoenergyplc.com
ZAI Corporate Finance Limited - Nominated Adviser +44 (0) 20 7060 2220
John Treacy
Brandon Hill Capital Limited - Broker +44 (0) 20 3463 5000
Jonathan Evans / Oliver Stansfield
Vigo Communications - PR Adviser +44 (0) 20 7830 9700
Patrick d'Ancona
Chris McMahon
Alexandra Roper
The information contained within this announcement is considered to be inside information prior to its release as defined in Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation No. 596/2014 and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of those Regulations.