TIDMPOS
RNS Number : 5249C
Plexus Holdings Plc
28 June 2016
Plexus Holdings PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: POS / Sector: Oil
equipment & services
28 June 2016
Plexus Holdings PLC ("Plexus" or "the Company")
Result of General Meeting &
Update on progress in relation to equipment supply opportunities
within Russia
Plexus Holdings PLC, the AIM quoted oil and gas engineering
services business and owner of the proprietary POS-GRIP(R)
friction-grip method of wellhead engineering, is pleased to
announce that all resolutions proposed at the General Meeting of
the Company (the "Resolutions"), held earlier today, were duly
passed.
Background
The Company announced on 13 June 2016 the agreed terms of a
conditional placing to raise GBP6,000,000 before expenses (the
"Placing"), through the issue of 9,230,770 new Ordinary Shares
("Placing Shares") at a price of 65 pence per Ordinary Share to new
and existing investors.
The Placing is intended to strengthen Plexus' balance sheet
during the current down cycle and to provide Plexus with the
flexibility to support the capital requirements of its long term
strategy of becoming a leading international oil and gas services
company, supplying a new and superior standard of wellhead
equipment and associated products for exploration, production and
subsea applications.
The proceeds of the Placing will be applied across a number of
the Company's areas of activity to ensure that Plexus is well
placed to take advantage when sector activity resumes. In
particular, the Board believes that the net proceeds of the Placing
will enable Plexus to:
-- pursue existing global opportunities (beyond the Company's
on-going North Sea operations) and to continue to support Plexus'
target activities in new regions - Asia, Russia and North/South
America;
-- progress the Python Subsea Wellhead development programme
towards a target trial before the end of 2016;
-- support on-going development of POS-GRIP product suite
(including production and subsea applications);
-- strengthen Plexus' working capital position during the down cycle; and
-- channel targeted R&D spend towards complementary products
(such as WellTree(TM) , Xmas Trees) and the decommissioning
market.
Update on progress in relation to equipment supply opportunities
within Russia
The Company is pleased to report that its recently appointed
Russian licensee partner, LLC Gusar (OOO Gusar) Ltd ('Gusar'),
continues to make important progress regarding manufacturing and
marketing Plexus wellhead designs and related products into the
Russian Federation and the other CIS states oil and gas markets
("the Territories").
At last week's St Petersburg International Economic Forum,
Russia's major oil and gas company, Gazprom Neft, announced that it
had signed strategic partnership agreements with, amongst others,
Gusar, to procure a range of import-substituting technologies and
equipment necessary for the exploration and development of Russia's
continental shelf. As part of its plans to explore Russia's
continental shelf, Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of Gazprom, has
indicated that it is intending to allocate at least 90% of its
costs towards purchasing equipment from Russian providers.
Plexus is encouraged by the signing of the partnership agreement
between Gusar and Gazprom Neft, and views this as a positive
development which it hopes will lead to Gusar becoming a supplier
of equipment, including licenced Plexus wellhead designs, to
Gazprom Neft in the future.
Admission of Placing Shares to Trading on AIM
Following the passing of the Resolutions, the Placing will now
proceed to completion. Application has been made to the London
Stock Exchange for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on
AIM ("Admission"), with Admission expected to become effective at
8.00 a.m. on 29 June 2016.
Following Admission, the Company's total issued and voting share
capital will comprise 105,386,239 Ordinary Shares. This figure may
be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculation to
determine whether a notification of interest, or change in
interest, in securities of the Company under the Financial Conduct
Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules is required.
Ben van Bilderbeek, CEO of Plexus, commented "Plexus is an IP
driven oil and gas engineering services company that has long been
the dominant supplier to blue chip operators such as Statoil and
Total of superior jack-up wellhead equipment for the most
challenging HP / HT wells in the North Sea. We want to replicate
this success on a global scale and the funds raised will help us
achieve this goal by allowing us to pursue larger market sectors
such as land and platform, and subsea applications. I would
therefore like to thank our valued shareholders for supporting the
Board's vision and formally approving today the GBP6m raise we
announced on 13 June 2016.
"At its core, our offering has always been based on our firm
view that a key requirement for wellheads and seals is that they
are not the weak link in the well architecture chain and therefore
that qualification standards for casing hangers and annular seals
are aligned with those for casings and tubing couplings. We
developed our patent protected POS GRIP technology with this in
mind and as a result, Plexus has been able to uniquely deliver a
much higher standard of equipment than conventional technology for
use on over 400 wells worldwide.
"The funds we have raised will allow us to support our growth
strategy to build our activities beyond the North Sea. This
strategy has seen us secure licensing agreements with local
operators in the large Chinese and Russian markets and form a joint
venture company in Malaysia, which has been granted a local licence
with Petronas. We can now continue to invest in both our technology
and products during the current oil and gas down cycle, and support
our new partners in overseas markets such as Russia so that we are
well placed for when the cycle picks up.
"In this regard, we are delighted with Gusar's ongoing efforts
to introduce Plexus' equipment to major Russian companies operating
in the significant Russian market. Plexus' relationship with Gusar
has accelerated since we signed the initial licence agreement in
January; not only has Gusar become an investor in Plexus, but it
has also extended the agreement to cover the larger, Russian
surface land and platform production wellhead equipment
markets.
"According to the US Energy Information Administration, Russia
was ranked the third largest producer of petroleum and other
liquids in 2014 and was estimated to hold almost a quarter of the
world's proven natural gas reserves. Meanwhile, future Russian
Arctic offshore reserves have been estimated at 1.69 billion tons
of oil and 13.19 trillion cubic meters of gas.
"As well as its size, the Russian market represents a
significant opportunity for Plexus thanks to a number of key
structural drivers: activity in the Russian land and platform
production sector remains buoyant as major operators focus on
drilling wells to maintain / increase output; Russia's active
import replacement programme focused on developing and
manufacturing its own equipment in-country; and our best in class
wellhead equipment being ideally suited to the challenging
conditions of gas exploration and production, which accounts for
the vast majority of the Russian energy sector.
"We believe Plexus' superior technology combined with Gusar's
local manufacturing and marketing capabilities represent a powerful
combination for winning market share in Russia. We are therefore
delighted to be working with Gusar and look forward to developing
the relationship further and working with them to maximise the
opportunities associated with their signing of a strategic
partnership agreement with Gazprom Neft."
**S**
For further information please visit www.posgrip.com or
contact:
Ben van Bilderbeek Plexus Holdings PLC Tel: 020 7795 6890
Graham Stevens Plexus Holdings PLC Tel: 020 7795 6890
Nick Tulloch Cenkos Securities PLC Tel: 0131 220 9772
Derrick Lee Cenkos Securities PLC Tel: 0131 220 9100
Frank Buhagiar St Brides Partners Ltd Tel: 020 7236 1177
Isabel de Salis St Brides Partners Ltd Tel: 020 7236 1177
NOTES:
Plexus Holdings PLC
Plexus Holdings PLC, which began trading on AIM in December
2005, is an oil and gas engineering and services business, which
supplies wellhead and mudline suspension equipment together with
associated equipment and services for exploration and production
applications. Based in Aberdeen, with offices in London, Cairo,
Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and a presence in Houston, Texas, it has
developed and patented a friction-grip method of engineering for
oil and gas field wellheads and connectors, POS-GRIP(R), which
involves deforming one tubular member against another to effect
gripping and sealing.
The Company plans to accelerate the roll out of POS-GRIP
wellhead equipment as a superior alternative to current technology
and for it to become the future industry standard for wellhead
design. In particular, the technology has advantages in High
Pressure/High Temperature (HP/HT) and Extreme HP/HT (X-HP/HT) oil
and gas environments, for which there is growing global demand and
where Plexus is being increasingly recognised as the supplier of
choice.
To date, POS-GRIP wellhead systems have been used or selected to
be used in over 350 oil and gas wells by international companies
including ADTI, AGR, Apache Energy Australia, BHP Billiton, BG
International, BP, Brunei Shell Petroleum, Cairn Energy, Centrica,
ConocoPhillips, Dana Petroleum, Dubai Petroleum, ENI, GDF SUEZ,
Global Santa Fe, Maersk, Niko Resources, Petro-Canada Trinidad
& Tobago, Premier Oil Norge, Red Sea Petroleum Operating
Company, Repsol, RWE, Senergy Limited, Shell China, Shell Egypt,
Statoil, Silverstone Energy, Talisman Energy, Total, Tullow Oil,
and Wintershall.
Importantly, the Company is focussed on extending its
proprietary POS-GRIP technology into an increasing number of subsea
applications. In line with this, in March 2011 the Company launched
a Joint Industry Project ('JIP') initiative to develop a new subsea
wellhead design, the 'Python Subsea Wellhead' utilising its
friction-grip technology in collaboration with key oil and gas
operators and service companies. BG, Royal Dutch Shell,
Wintershall, Maersk, TOTAL, Tullow Oil, ENI, Senergy, ADTI and Oil
States Industries Inc. The JIP is nearing completion with final
qualification testing of all key features of the product under way,
and the resultant Python Subsea Wellhead design will include a
combination of key features never before seen in a subsea wellhead
which include being rated to 15,000 psi, 4,000,000 pounds of
'instant' casing lockdown capacity, and importantly rigid metal
annular seal technology qualified to match the performance of
premium connectors. The building of a single string Python Subsea
Wellhead system prototype commenced in February, and was launched
at the SPE Offshore Europe Exhibition and Conference in Aberdeen
('OE2015') in September 2015.
Plexus is an innovative technology company always looking for
opportunities to apply its proprietary POS-GRIP friction grip
method of engineering to new products both within and outside the
oil and gas industry. For example Plexus have recently completed a
JIP in conjunction with Maersk to develop a downhole HPHT Tieback
connector which for the first time allows the reconnection of
production casing to HPHT exploration and production wells. In
addition the Company has developed and qualified a new product
called POS-SET Connector(TM) which is designed to re-establish a
connection onto rough conductor casing previously cut above the
seabed to facilitate tieback or abandonment operations. The market
for permanent plugging and abandonment of wells is increasing in
the North Sea and beyond, and could be an important new revenue
stream for the Company.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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