Limerick-founded Circle Oil mulling fresh shares issue

Irish-founded exploration firm Circle Oil is considering a fresh equity raise in the new year in a bid to “right size” its balance sheet.

The Limerick-founded company, which is mainly active in northern Africa, yesterday announced it is considering “a number of options” including a debt restructuring and/or an equity raise, within the first quarter of 2016, in order to “right-size the balance sheet and ensure that the company has sufficient cash flows to fund operations”.

While Circle has made progress in talks to extend its lending facility with the International Finance Corporation, it said the process has not progressed as quickly as envisaged.