San Leon Energy - Re: SLE Stream Log - linkoping 20:51 Sequa might back...

linkoping 20:51 Sequa might back him Mamms 20:45 Re: The Cuckoo's Nest Thanks for posting this Sobeit. I find the bit that says" there are rumblings a management-led take-private could materialise." quite worrying. The SP has been driven into the ground by management's failure to do a deal- then they'd swoop in and buy it subsequently do a deal? It seems unlikely that they would be backed by anyone though, What a balls. Adven 20:35 Full text>Providence puts faith in O’Reilly as pressure mounts Gavin Daly Published: 7 June 2015 Print At least someone in the O’Reilly clan is in the money. As his father endures an insolvency arrangement in the Bahamas, Tony O’Reilly Jr has been handed another two years at the helm of Providence Resources, the oil and gas explorer best known for its long-running adventures with the Barryroe oilfield off the Cork coast. O’Reilly Jr’s contract was renewed last month, and is subject to one year’s notice period, reveals the Providence annual report, which was quietly made available last week. There was no stock exchange announcement of his reappointment. It’s a good gig. O’Reilly’s pay rose by €22,000 to €516,000 in 2014, a year in which the company’s share price fell from a high of about €3.50 to below €1. The shares are now at 31c. The boss soldiers on regardless, marking 10 years as chief executive of Providence and 18 years since he founded the company. There has been plenty of turnover on the share register since then, and the current crop of investors can be forgiven for wondering when Barryroe will deliver on its reported potential. Not any time soon, is the answer. All things going well — and things have not gone well for Providence — the company will soon pin down a farm-out partner to take on the cost of developing Barryroe. Then it has to drill an appraisal well, before moving on to extraction and production. Sources suggest a phased approach is likely, meaning the first oil will not flow until 2019 or even 2020 — up to eight years since it triumphantly announced 300m barrels of recoverable oil were there for the taking. As Davy, the company broker, put it in a recent note, getting wells drilled is “ultimately the only source of real value creation” for Providence. Until then, it is a company “straining to develop its assets” in a difficult market. Providence says it is continuing discussions with a number of potential partners who are active in the Barryroe data room. “The recent rise in both oil prices and M&A activity provides a better background environment for the company to conclude matters,” the annual report declares. Sources say there are as many as four parties in the data room, possibly two oil outfits and two private equity firms. If a deal cannot be done, there are rumblings a management-led take-private could materialise. To do that, O’Reilly Jr would have to find a funder. He would also have to offer a significant premium to the anaemic share price, given he has long been telling shareholders the company is significantly undervalued. His task may have been made easier by a €25.9m share placing in March at the equivalent of 34c a share. New investors who bought in at that price could happily take, say, 60c or 70c a share and walk away. Investors who have been in Providence for the long haul — some since the heady days of €8 a share in 2012 — may be in no mood, however, to hand the firm to the man who has been at the wheel all along. Providence, of course, is only 80% of the story at Barryroe. Two other quoted companies, and surely thousands of individual investors, also have their fates tied up there. Lansdowne Oil & Gas holds the 20% balance. San Leon Energy, a former Barryroe shareholder, still has a 4.5% “net profit interest” (NPI) in the project. Like Providence, their shares have collapsed. Like Providence, they have carried out rock-bottom fundraisings to tide them over to the day when, hopefully, Barryroe delivers. Lansdowne, listed on the AIM, raised £1m (€1.4m) in a March share placing and has also issued loan notes worth £1.8m to LC Capital Master Fund, its biggest shareholder. A strategic review of its operations, which may lead to a sale, has been going on since April. San Leon, headed by former MMI stockbroker Oisín Fanning, is raising £29m in a new share placing — a figure not far off Providence’s market cap. The placing will significantly dilute existing shareholders but is designed partly to protect the Barryroe NPI. In shareholder documents, San Leon said it wanted to hold on to rather than “monetise” — sell — its Barryroe interest. “The company expects to benefit from considerable cash flow arising out of the NPI, in excess of $700m [€630m] over the field life,” it said. That calculation is based, of course, on figures from Providence. Those numbers — and Providence’s managers — will surely get a going-over when the explorer’s annual meeting takes place in Dublin on June 26