Share issue approved in bid to energise Icon
SHAREHOLDERS in listed Gold Coast gas and oil explorer Icon Energy have approved a new share issue, intended to raise funds in a tough operating environment.
The plan to issue shares to the value of an extra 10 per cent of the company’s market value during the coming 12 months was carried on a show of hands at Icon’s annual meeting yesterday held at the Home of the Arts in Bundall.
Based on the current share price, the issue would raise about $1.195 million.
Yesterday Stephen Barry told shareholders it had been difficult to raise funds via joint venture partners for projects in the Cooper Basin and Cooper-Eromanga Basin.
“Icon’s main focus remains on obtaining funding for its two separate projects being ATP 855 and ATP 594,” he said. “That is still proving to be a difficult task despite the overall improvement in the oil price in the latter part of 2017, which has sparked interest in exploration for oil and gas.”
Mr Barry said, despite the problems, the board remained confident it would succeed in obtaining the funds to continue to explore and drill wells on its tenements.
He said it has been talking with several potential farminees, which refers to an arrangement whereby an operator buys in or acquires an interest in a lease owned by another operator on which oil or gas has been discovered or is being produced.
Mr Barry said Icon was in a strong cash position with a bank balance of $12.26 million.
He said the board recognised that the share price remains “frustratingly low”.
“A fully funded project and recommencement of operations should support a return to share price levels that Icon enjoyed in past years, but this would be subject to market trading conditions,” he said.
Shares closed down 8.6 per cent at 2.1¢.