Columbus, the oil and gas producer and explorer focused on onshore Trinidad and Suriname, announces a continuation, for the month of June 2020, of the cost control measures first implemented in April 2020 in response to the lower oil price environment.
As announced on 15 April 2020, the Company has implemented various costs control measures, including the issuance of shares to Lind in lieu of cash payments and the issuance of Contractor Shares.
The Company has decided that it is the best of interests of its shareholders to continue these actions into the month of June 2020 and as such will:
- Issue 7,538,603 new ordinary shares to Lind in lieu of cash payments otherwise due in June 2020 (the "Lind Shares"). Such issuance is in accordance with the Company's rights under the 2019 Facility Agreement.
- Contractor Shares: issuance of 9,500,000 new ordinary shares to various contractors, as part of the Contractor Shares Scheme, which has been in place since mid-2018.
The other measures for managing company costs as announced on 15 April 2020, including no cash salaries for the Executive Management, remain in place.
The issuance of the Lind Shares and Contractor Shares in June 2020 was envisaged in the merger announcement made by the Company and Bahamas Petroleum Company plc on 11 June 2020 and has no effect on the exchange ratio as set out therein.
Tony Hawkins, CEO of Columbus, commented:
"The Company continues to manage some of its third party costs through the issuance of shares under the Lind Facility and the Contractor Shares scheme. We believe that at present this is in the best interests of shareholders but we will review whether it makes sense to continue to do so given the proposed merger."
Lind Shares and Contractor Shares
The Lind Shares and the Contractor Shares represent 1.85% of the 918,014,741 ordinary shares in issue prior to the issuance of the Lind Shares and Contractor Shares. The Lind Shares and Contractor Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the Company's existing ordinary shares. An application will be made for the Lind Shares and Contractor Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM, ("Admission"), and it is expected that Admission will become effective and that dealings will commence on or around 22 June 2020.
Total Voting Rights
For the purposes of the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority, the Board of Columbus hereby notifies the market of the following:
As at the date of this announcement, and after the issuance of the Lind Shares and the Contractor Shares, the Company's issued share capital will consist of 935,053,344 ordinary shares with a nominal value of 0.05p each, with voting rights ("Ordinary Shares"). The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in Treasury.
Therefore, the total number of Ordinary Shares in the Company with voting rights is 935,053,344. This figure may be used by Shareholders in the Company as denominator for the calculations by which they may determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
