San Leon Energy fracking company placing to raise €40m from shareholders

San Leon Energy, the fracking company owned by Oisín Fanning, the former chief executive of Smart Telecom, has announced a fundraising round at a share price of 0.8p.

The company has conditionally agreed to raise £29m (€40.35m) from existing and new shareholders by agreeing to place 36,250,000 new ordinary shares at 80p per share (or 0.8p per existing share). The share placing will therefore effect an increase in the issued share capital (adjusted for the share capital reorganisation) of about 143%.

Among the company’s main reasons for the fundraising is to enable it to retain the Barryroe oil field off the Cork coast rather than monetising it to fund operations.