DENVER, Jan. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Magellan
Petroleum Corporation ("Magellan" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: MPET)
(ASX: MGN) today announced that on January
14, 2013, the Company entered into a Collateral Purchase
Agreement with Sopak AG ("Sopak"), a Swiss subsidiary of Glencore
International plc. Under the terms of this agreement,
Magellan agreed to purchase from Sopak 9,264,637 shares of
Magellan's common stock and a warrant granting Sopak the right to
purchase from the Company an additional 4,347,826 shares of common
stock. In exchange for the shares and the warrant, Magellan
paid to Sopak $10 million in cash
consideration, which the Company funded from its own balance sheet
resources.
Excluding the warrant, the shares repurchased from Sopak
represent approximately 17% of the Company's shares outstanding
immediately prior to the transaction. As of today, the
Company's outstanding shares total 44,642,983.
J. Thomas Wilson, President and
CEO of Magellan, stated, "This transaction is a significant
milestone in our path to deliver value to our shareholders.
We have succeeded in buying back a substantial amount of our own
stock at an attractive price. At the same time, we have
eliminated the overhang from the warrant, which could have had a
significant dilutive impact on our share value and
shareholders. With this transaction now behind us, we remain
focused on achieving a number of operational milestones over the
coming months in line with our strategy of proving up the value of
our existing assets."
Sopak originally obtained the shares and warrant in September 2012 by exercising its rights under a
pledge and security agreement between Sopak and Young Energy Prize
S.A., a Luxembourg
corporation.
The Company has disclosed further details of this transaction on
Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on
January 17, 2013. This Form 8-K
is also available on the Company's website at
www.magellanpetroleum.com.
CAUTIONARY INFORMATION ABOUT FORWARD LOOKING
STATEMENTS
Statements in this release that are not historical in nature are
intended to be, and are hereby identified as, forward-looking
statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. These statements about Magellan may relate to
its businesses, prospects, and other matters that involve a number
of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ
materially from the results expressed or implied in the
forward-looking statements. Among these risks and
uncertainties are: (i) whether repurchase of the shares and the
warrant will impact our share value or shareholders; and (ii) those
set forth in the Risk Factors sections of Magellan's most recent
10-K and subsequent 10-Qs filed with the SEC.
ABOUT MAGELLAN
Magellan is an independent energy
company engaged in the exploration, development, production, and
sale of crude oil and natural gas from currently held assets in
the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Traded on NASDAQ since 1972, the Company conducts its operations
through two wholly owned subsidiaries, Nautilus Poplar LLC, which
owns interests at Poplar, a highly attractive oil field in the
Williston Basin, and Magellan Petroleum Australia Limited, a
successful independent oil and gas company in Australia and the UK in existence since the
1964. The Company's mission is to enhance shareholder value
by maximizing the full potential of existing assets. Magellan
routinely posts important information about the Company on its
website at www.magellanpetroleum.com.
For further information, please contact:
Matthew Ciardiello, Manager,
Investor Relations at 720.484.2404
SOURCE Magellan Petroleum Corporation