1 December 2015
Bezant Resources Plc
("Bezant" or the "Company")
Subscription to raise approximately £0.4m gross
Bezant (AIM: BZT), the AIM listed mineral exploration and development company operating in the Philippines and Argentina, is pleased to announce that it has raised, in aggregate, £406,394 (approximately US$610,855) before expenses, via a subscription by certain new and existing investors for 16,587,500 new ordinary shares of 0.2 pence each in the capital of Bezant (the "Subscription Shares") at a price of 2.45 pence per Subscription Share (the "Subscription Price") (the "Subscription").
The Subscription Price represents a premium of approximately 8.9 per cent. to the closing mid-market price of 2.25 pence per ordinary share on 30 November 2015 (being the latest practicable business day prior to the date of this announcement). The Subscription Shares will represent approximately 16.7 per cent. of the Company's enlarged issued share capital and the Subscription is conditional on admission of the Subscription Shares to trading on AIM ("Admission").
Further to the Company's announcement of 16 November 2015, regarding Bezant entering into an option to potentially acquire 100 per cent. of the issued share capital of Leeward Islands Exploration LLC ("Leeward"), the net proceeds raised from the Subscription will be utilised towards satisfying the cash consideration due to the shareholders of Leeward, should Bezant ultimately elect to exercise its option, and otherwise will be used for general working capital purposes.
Bezant intends to rapidly assess the capability of Leeward's assets to host a potential near term, low cost, source of platinum production within Colombia. The Company has significant experience in developing highly economic platinum operations and the Board believes that the option over Leeward represents the best route forward for developing shareholder value. Furthermore, the Board believes that in the current economic environment junior natural resource companies should seek to identify cash generative mining projects of a size and scale that can provide a cash-flow platform for their operations, such as Leeward. Leeward also represents a potential platinum production source outside of South Africa at a time when high operating costs are besetting the Bushveld complex (the world's main source of platinum located in South Africa).
Application to trading on AIM
Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the Subscription Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is expected that Admission will become effective and that dealings in the Subscription Shares will commence at 8.00 a.m. on 4 December 2015.
Following the issue of the abovementioned Subscription Shares, the Company's issued share capital will consist of 99,527,025 ordinary shares with voting rights. The Company does not hold any ordinary shares in treasury and accordingly there are no voting rights in respect of any treasury shares. The Subscription Shares will be fully paid and will rank pari passu in all respects with the Company's existing ordinary shares.
The above figure of 99,527,025 ordinary shares may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, Bezant under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
Related party transaction
Pursuant to the Subscription, Edward Nealon, Non-Executive Chairman of the Company, is investing £134,750 for 5,500,000 Subscription Shares and, following completion of the Subscription, he will therefore be interested in 6,250,000 ordinary shares, representing approximately 6.28 per cent. of the Company's enlarged issued ordinary share capital.
The participation of Mr Nealon in the Subscription is considered to be a related party transaction for the purposes of Rule 13 of the AIM Rules for Companies. Accordingly, the directors of Bezant (save for Mr Nealon), consider, having consulted with Strand Hanson Limited (the Company's Nominated Adviser), that the terms of Mr Nealon's participation in the Subscription are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are concerned.
Bernard Olivier, Chief Executive Officer of Bezant, commented:
"We are delighted to announce this subscription which will enable us to progress with the potential exercise of the recently announced option over the Colombian platinum assets in the Choco Department. We believe that rapidly assessing and bringing into potential near term production such a new source of low-cost platinum production is a strategy that will deliver value for Bezant's shareholders in the current difficult market conditions. Our team has significant expertise developing projects into production and within the platinum sector itself, importantly outside of typical high-cost, deep PGM mining regions."
For further information, please contact:
Bezant Resources Plc Bernard Olivier Chief Executive Officer Laurence Read Non-Executive Director |
Tel: +61 40 894 8182 Tel: +44 (0)20 3289 9923 |
Strand Hanson Limited (Nomad) James Harris / Matthew Chandler / James Dance |
Tel: +44 (0)20 7409 3494 |
Sanlam Securities UK Limited (Broker) Gavin Burnell |
Tel: +44 (0)20 7382 0932 |
or visit http://www.bezantresources.com
