Oil firm applies for dual listing

Dublin-headquartered exploration company Falcon Oil & Gas is to take a dual share listing in London and Dublin, aimed at raising $25m (€19.2m).

It is expected that the two listings — on the AIM in London and Dublin’s secondary ESM market — will commence in two weeks’ time on Thursday, Mar 28.

Announcing the company’s application for trading on both exchanges, chief executive Philip O’Quigley, called it “the right time” to bring the firm to AIM and ESM, “in order to support the next stage of Falcon’s development”.

“We believe that the admission will be an important step in the group’s continued growth, allowing the company access to additional sources of finance, as we and our partners strive to realise the value proposition from the large resource potential contained within our asset portfolio,” he added.

Falcon will place nearly 120.4m additional shares, at a price of 14p per share, as part of the move. It said the listings will give it access to funding sources not available to it and provide it with further opportunities to fund growth in the future and give it the scope to carry out potential strategic acquisitions.

Mr O’Quigley — who has a long history in the Irish exploration field, having worked with the likes of Glencar Mining and Petroceltic — left his most recent position of finance director at Providence Resources (with whom he retains a non-executive director role), to take over at Falcon last year.

The company — which is already listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange — last year moved its headquarters from Denver to Dublin and its technical operations from the same US city to Budapest.