|
| |
Gasol Finalizes the Reverse Takeover of African LNG
06-25-2008
Gasol announces that all the
resolutions regarding the reverse takeover of African LNG Holdings Limited
("African LNG") proposed at the Extraordinary General Meeting held today were
passed. As a result African LNG is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gasol plc,
Mr Theo Oerlemans, Chairman of African LNG, has become Non-Executive Chairman of
Gasol, and Mr Ethelbert Cooper, co-founder of African LNG, joins Dr Rilwanu
Lukman as Strategic Advisor to the Board of Gasol.
It is expected that Admission of the Enlarged Group will become effective and
dealings in the Enlarged Group's shares will commence on AIM on 25 June 2008.
African LNG brings a combination of business opportunities at various stages of
development, relationships, and an experienced management team in the oil and
gas industry and liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) in Africa. Ownership of African
LNG will strengthen Gasol’s strategic relationship with Afren plc – under which
Afren plc has granted to African LNG an exclusive right of first refusal to
acquire its natural gas – formed to develop low cost stranded gas reserves in
the Gulf of Guinea.
The combination of Afren plc’s technical upstream capability with African LNG’s
gas commercialisation capacity is complementary, strengthening the capacities of
both companies. In particular, Afren, African LNG and E.ON Ruhrgas have recently
concluded a cooperation agreement to jointly investigate, collect, develop,
collect and monetize gas in Nigeria for domestic and export LNG purposes.
Osman Shahenshah, Director of Gasol said: “The completion of this deal
significantly enhances the size and opportunities for the Group and we are now
well set to continue in developing the company into the premier Africa-focused
gas independent. We look forward to an exciting future, delivering value to our
shareholders.”
Theo Oerlemans, Gasol’s in-coming Non-Executive Chairman said: “I am honoured to
accept the invitation to become Chairman of Gasol as it embarks on its new
trajectory following the acquisition of the remaining stake in African LNG. The
combined resources of the enlarged Group, its people, projects and
relationships, lead me to believe that they represent an excellent springboard
from which to achieve our target of becoming the leading independent
Africa-focused gas company.”
Also commenting, Soumo Bose, Chief Executive Officer of Gasol said: “Following
the transformational acquisition of African LNG, we remain highly confident of
the reinforced Board and Management team’s ability to capitalize on the strong
global growth in LNG demand and the unique opportunity presented to independents
like Gasol.”
|
