MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Rockhopper: High Court confirms the cancellation of the Company's Share Premium Account
Rockhopper Exploration plc (AIM: RKH), the North Falkland Basin oil and gas company, announces that at a hearing today, the Companies Court of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice confirmed the cancellation of the Company's share premium account (“Cancellation of Share Premium Account”). The Cancellation of the Share Premium Account is expected to become effective tomorrow, 4 July 2013. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesCan somebody who uderstands all this give me a plain unbiased explanation in simple english as to what it means?
Jul 03rd, 2013 - 09:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes, it is simple.
Jul 03rd, 2013 - 11:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I imagine sth like: the company wont pay you nothing (shares, dividend) until the mid term evaluation of the requirement (?) is being completed.
They wont pay.
The shares had been dropping steadily until a couple of days ago and now they have started to slowly bounce back from 1.20 up to 1.275, so does the market think this Court ruling is a positive move?
Jul 04th, 2013 - 07:17 am - Link - Report abuse 0It's not particularly interesting. It relates to tidying up the bookkeeping to give the statement of finacial position (balance sheet) a more true and fair view of the company.
Jul 04th, 2013 - 09:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0To summarise it is to avoid showing a capital surplus and an accounting loss on the same SOFP.
See - told you it was dull.
Islander1
Jul 04th, 2013 - 09:34 am - Link - Report abuse 0A lot of start up companies have no means to pay a dividend or buy-back shares, their funds are held in a share premium account.
Rockhopper are cash rich having received $1/4bn from premier in cash as well as a free carry to production worth 3/4bn, and one of their large shareholders Odey Asset managment want some of the $250m paid back to the share holders, either as a one-off dividend or as a share-buy back (in essence RKH use their own cash to buy-back and then cancel shares, which would increase the value of those remaining in circulation).
RKH have stated that they dont really want to follow the Odey route at least until final concept selection (and costs) are agreed, and the remaining CGT due to the FIG is paid or postponed.
Alternatively, they could use the cash to farm further into desire or Argos.
All the cancellation of the share premium account does, is enable them to follow any or all of the routes they wish.
Monkey - many thanks for the that- understand. Logical that some investors may want some cashback quick who just invested for the short-term but majority are aware of the longterm need and from my “inexpert” view an oil company does not have money for dividends until the oil starts to flow! - and that is another 4.5 yrs minimum yet.
Jul 04th, 2013 - 11:14 am - Link - Report abuse 0Those who wanted a quick buck should perhaps have sold shares around the filed discovery time instead.
They didn't want to pay out dosh on borrowings.
Jul 04th, 2013 - 12:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Decided to wait for the black stuff to glug ashore, sell it and pay disgustingly huge dividends outa massive profits.
Capitalism - you gotta love it.
#6
Jul 04th, 2013 - 01:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It depends really. If final concept selection shows that the Premier carry is sufficient to cover them until first oil ( it may or may not be depending on which concept is selected), Then RKH should show why they need to sit on $250m cash.
If they decided to buy an FPSO as opposed to lease, bring forward the 4th development module (in the formerly DES controlled acreage), plan multiple exploration wells, or want the cash for acquisition..then not handing it to the shareholders would seem prudent.
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