Energean Oil and Gas plc (LSE: ENOG) expects the process for its Secondary Listing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to complete on 29 October 2018. Energean expects to become a constituent of the Tel Aviv 90 and Tel Aviv Oil and Gas Indices.
Energean maintains its Primary Listing on the Premium Listing Segment of the Official List of the FCA and its shares will continue to trade on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. Shares will be fully transferrable and fungible between the two markets. Energean is not issuing any new shares in connection with the Secondary Listing.
Energean says that it is pursuing the Secondary Listing in order to further expand the accessibility of its Oil & Gas growth story to a wider pool of investors; to improve the breadth and depth of the its shareholder base; and to fulfil the commitment the it made on its IPO to pursue a secondary listing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
In March this year, Energean raised $450 million in an IPO on the London Stock exchange. Since then, its share price has risen 30%, bringing its market cap to £872 million ($1.2 billion). In Israel, the company raised $140 million from investment institutions, headed by Clal Insurance, Psagot, Meitav Dash, and the Safra fund. The London IPO was led by Morgan Stanley and Citi, while the Israeli round was led by Poalim IBI.
Energean has thirteen exploration licenses around the world, eight of them in Israel. The Greek company bought the rights to the Karish and Tanin reserves in Israel following the agreement with the Israeli government by Noble Energy and Delek Group under which they divested themselves of those licenses in order to develop the major Leviathan reserve.
Two months ago, Energean announced the results of geological analysis of its five maritime blocks in Israel, indicating potential of 126 BCM of natural gas, equal to about half the Tamar reserve. In addition, the analysis indicated an additional 86 BCM in the Karish and Tanin fields, bringing the total there to 154 BCM. In December 2017, Energean won auctions by the Israeli government for blocks 12, 21, 22, 23 and 31, close to the Karish and Tanin reserves. The potential indicated in the current analysis is an initial estimate only; only after exploratory drilling will it be possible to gauge the amount of gas in these blocks with any certainty.
Energean Oil & Gas CEO Mathios Rigas said, "Israel is a core component of our portfolio and we are on track to start producing gas from the only FPSO in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1Q 2021. We have already secured contracts to supply 4.2 bcma of gas into the growing Israeli domestic market, contributing diversity and security of supply.
"Looking ahead, our future gas sales agreements will target both domestic and key export markets in the region. Our Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Listing fulfils a further commitment that we made to shareholders at the time of our London Stock Exchange IPO and I am pleased to further expand the accessibility of our company to a wider pool of investors."
Besides its five exploration licenses offshore Israel, Energean has a 25-year exploitation license for the Katakolo offshore block in Western Greece and additional exploration potential in its other licenses in Western Greece and Montenegro.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 16, 2018
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