VANCOUVER, BC, June 20,
2023 /CNW/ - (TSX: AOI) (Nasdaq-Stockholm: AOI) –
Africa Oil Corp. ("Africa Oil", "AOC" or the "Company") is
pleased to announce that its investee company, Prime Oil & Gas
Coöperatief U.A. ("Prime"), has confirmed the closing of its debt
refinancing and thus significantly increasing its debt capacity and
extending its debt maturity profile. This supports the distribution
of dividends by Prime to its shareholders and, Prime will
distribute the first dividend of 2023 for $125.0 million or $62.5
million net to Africa Oil's 50% shareholding in Prime on
June 21, 2023. The closing of this
refinancing follows the renewal of Oil Mining License ("OML") 130
for a period of 20 years, as announced in the Company's
announcement of May 29, 2023. View
PDF version
At the end of the first quarter 2023 Prime had an outstanding
reserves-based lending ("RBL") facility and a pre-export finance
facility ("PXF") with an aggregate outstanding debt amount of
$720.3 million ($360.2 million net to AOC). Prime has refinanced
these facilities with the closing of a new RBL facility and the PXF
has been retired. This new facility is for a principal amount of
$1,050.0 million ($525.0 million net to AOC) and has a 6-year
tenor. Prime had a cash position of $396.9
million ($198.5 million net to
AOC) at the end of the first quarter 2023.
Africa Oil closed the acquisition of a 50% shareholding in Prime
in January 2020 for a cash
consideration of $519.5 million. The
Company has received a total of $712.5
million in dividend payments from Prime, including the
$62.5 million amount to be received
on June 21, 2023, and achieved
payback of its Prime investment in under three years.
Africa Oil is also pleased to announce that the lenders in its
standby credit facility, which is currently undrawn, have confirmed
an increase in the available facility amount to $200.0 million from $100.0
million previously. The Company's standby credit facility is
available up to April 20, 2024, and
has a maturity of October 20, 2025.
At the end of the first quarter 2023, Africa Oil had a debt-free
balance sheet and a cash position of $158.2
million.
Africa Oil President and CEO Keith
Hill commented: "the expansion and closing of Prime's
debt refinancing, the payment of a $125.0
million dividend by Prime and the renewal of OML 130 license
are important achievements in the first half of 2023. As a result,
Africa Oil and Prime have greater flexibility in their near-term
capital allocation decision making, underpinned by strong balance
sheets in both businesses. At Africa Oil, we are well positioned to
pursue our ambitions for further growth and improved shareholder
returns at the appropriate time. Our plans are complemented by the
potentially transformational Orange Basin appraisal and exploration
campaign, offshore Namibia, which
is currently under way with the Venus appraisal and Nara
exploration program."
Africa Oil CFO Pascal Nicodeme
commented: "We are grateful for the continuing support of
our relationship banks. The doubling of the available amount for
our standby credit facility to $200.0
million, is a testament to the quality of our assets and our
disciplined financial management. Strong banking support is a key
competitive advantage in the independent E&P sector. We look
forward to further collaboration with our relationship banks as we
execute our business plan."
About Africa Oil
Africa Oil Corp. is a Canadian oil and gas company with
producing and development assets in deepwater Nigeria and an exploration/appraisal portfolio
in west and south of Africa, as
well as Guyana. The Company is
listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and on Nasdaq Stockholm under
the symbol "AOI".
Additional Information
This information is information that Africa Oil is obliged to
make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the
Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information
was submitted for publication, through the agency of the
contact person set out above, at 5:00 p.m.
ET on June 20, 2023.
Forward-Looking Information
Certain statements and information contained herein constitute
"forward-looking information" (within the meaning of applicable
Canadian securities legislation). Such statements and information
(together, "forward-looking statements") relate to future events or
the Company's future performance, business prospects or
opportunities.
All statements other than statements of historical fact may be
forward-looking statements. Statements concerning proven and
probable reserves and resource estimates may also be deemed to
constitute forward-looking statements and reflect conclusions that
are based on certain assumptions that the reserves and resources
can be economically exploited. Any statements that express or
involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations,
beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future
events or performance (often, but not always, using words or
phrases such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue",
"estimate", "expect, "may", "will", "project", "predict",
"potential", "targeting", "intend", "could", "might", "should",
"believe" and similar expressions) are not statements of historical
fact and may be "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking
statements involve known and unknown risks, ongoing uncertainties
and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ
materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking
statements, including statements pertaining production, schedules
and costs of exploratory drilling activity including those offshore
Namibia , uninsured risks,
regulatory and fiscal changes, availability of materials and
equipment, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations,
duration of the drilling program, availability of third party
service providers and defects in title. No assurance can be given
that these expectations will prove to be correct and such
forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. The
Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to
update these forward-looking statements, except as required by
applicable laws. These forward-looking statements involve risks and
uncertainties relating to, among other things, changes in
macro-economic conditions and their impact on operations, changes
in oil prices, reservoir and production facility performance,
hedging counterparty contractual performance, results of
exploration and development activities, cost overruns, uninsured
risks, regulatory and fiscal changes including uncertainties around
applicable corporate income tax in Nigeria, defects in title, claims and legal
proceedings, availability of materials and equipment, availability
of skilled personnel, timeliness of government or other regulatory
approvals, actual performance of facilities, joint venture partner
underperformance, availability of financing on reasonable terms,
availability of third party service providers, equipment and
processes relative to specifications and expectations and
unanticipated environmental, health and safety impacts on
operations. Actual results may differ materially from those
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
SOURCE Africa Oil Corp.