Suspended Exxoteq will ask JSE to let it trade aga
Suspended Exxoteq will ask JSE to let it trade again
July 6, 2005
By Ingrid Salgado
Cape Town - Exxoteq, the oil explorer suspended from the JSE 10 months ago after its auditors issued a liquidity warning, would apply to the exchange this month to lift the moratorium on trading, the company said yesterday.
Exxoteq, which was rescued earlier this year by a R35 million equity injection from black economic empowerment (BEE) group Inyanga, said it was waiting for Inyanga to comply with `one or two` unspecified items.
Once these had been dealt with, the company would submit its application to the JSE, Exxoteq investor relations manager Lee-Ann Louverdis said. This was expected to take place within a week or two, she said.
John Burke, JSE`s director of listings, said the bourse would respond within 48 hours after it had received the application.
Exxoteq, which has a concession to drill inland at Algoa Bay, listed in November 2003 at R5 a share, attracting interest on its promise to exploit marginal oil fields using a unique technology.
But Exxoteq chairman Prem Sawney was killed in a car accident last year, before he had secured financing deals to develop Algoa. The lack of capital led the company`s auditors to express concern that Exxoteq was trading without reasonable expectation of meeting liabilities.
The counter was suspended from the JSE just 10 months after it came to market, having last traded at 20c.
New management was seconded by Exxoteq USA, the international parent, to take the reins.
The new chief executive, Gavin Zietsman, announced in March that Inyanga would pay R15 million for 32 percent of Exxoteq and R20 million for 26 percent of Sequence Oil & Gas, an Exxoteq subsidiary that holds the rights for the Algoa contract.
Inyanga is a consortium of BEE investors led by Max Makhabulo, the Free State Development Corporation chairman and a former human resources manager of Sasol Synfuels.
Louverdis said planning had been done for drilling to start at Algoa: `We are ready to go.`
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