Kea Petroleum comes to AIM and raises £6 million

On 15 February, 2010, Kea Petroleum PLC, an oil and gas exploration company with three petroleum exploration permits in the Taranaki and Northland Basins of New Zealand, has today been admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). In conjunction with Admission, 75,000,000 ordinary shares were placed by RBC Capital Markets at 8p per share to raise £6 million. The market capitalisation of Kea at the placing price is approximately £36.8 million. The net proceeds from the Placing together with Kea's existing cash resources will be used to drill one well on each of the Group's two petroleum exploration permits in the Taranaki Basin, to carry out initial seismic surveying on these permits and gravity and geochemical surveys on the Group's petroleum exploration permit in the Northland Basin, to fund further wells under consideration and to provide general working capital for the Group. Kea's strategy is to build a business where existing and lower risk new discoveries can be rapidly brought on-stream, by utilising the well-established local oil and gas infrastructure and markets. David Smith and Peter Rhodes of Fasken Martineau advised Kea Petroleum PLC and its directors on the placing and on Admission. In addition, Mark Camilleri and Jodi Katz advised on Canadian law aspects of the placing.