The company said today that its initial public offer had comfortably met its full target of $10 million and Austin would accept what it says is a healthy volume of oversubscriptions.
The IPO offered 50 million 20c shares and allowed for oversubscriptions of a further $2 million.
Austin is now expected to list on the ASX on or around Monday, July 17, with 486 shareholders. The company will have 112 million ordinary shares and a range of A, B and C Class options on issue and be valued at listing at $22.4 million.
The company’s principal backers, each holding a 21% stake, include oil and gas technologist DMS Exploration and tea, oil and gas group Assam Company, which is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Austin has scheduled the drilling of four wells during 2006-07 on its acreage in two US states, South Australia’s Cooper Basin and in South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula, directly west of Adelaide.
“The strong IPO outcome is a particularly pleasing result, as it was both a large oil and gas float compared to recent raisings in the sector and was well supported despite the offer period paralleling one of the most uncertain periods this year for resource-based equities,” Austin managing director David Schuette said.
“We sought to differentiate Austin by bringing to the market a combination of low-risk, near-development status prospects in Louisiana and Texas in the US, with higher reward but higher risk targets in Australia’s renowned Cooper Basin, as well as Yorke Peninsula,” Schuette said.
“This message has clearly been digested and welcomed by investors.”
Austin’s flagship exploration over the next 12 months will be the St Gabriel Prospect in Louisiana in the US, where up to $A4.16 million will be spent proving up a drill-ready target.
St Gabriel comprises two untested fault blocks in favourable positions to trap hydrocarbons. The proposed first well will target a potential 5 million barrels of oil and 36 billion cubic feet of gas. A second US well will be drilled in Texas.
In Australia, Austin Exploration will drill a well into the Tirrawarra Prospect in PEL 105 in the Cooper Basin area, targeting a stratigraphic play with an estimated recoverable potential of 5MMbbl of oil and 25Bcf of gas.
A high risk oil target with a potential 800MMbbl of recoverable oil will also be drilled into the Stansbury Basin under Austin’s modern-day exploration offensive to revisit the historic onshore petroleum areas in the southern portion of the Yorke Peninsula.
In the longer term, Austin plans to acquire acreage in India under a memorandum of understanding with Assam to actively study opportunities in that country’s oil and gas sector.
DMS is an independent oil and gas operator based in Austin, Texas, with experience in developing technology used by international oil and gas companies to interpret magnetic data. Its exploration team is highly experienced in the technical and management skills needed to develop prospects, and initiating and completing mergers and acquisitions in the petroleum industry.
Assam is a $A170 million 165-year-old Indian tea and oil and gas company that is now part of the UK’s Duncan Macneill Group. Heavily involved in energy projects in northeast India, Assam’s heritage includes drilling the world’s second oil well in the 1890s.
