Kerogen injects £44m into listed Hurricane

The deal consists entirely of new ordinary shares and also sees a group of existing Hurricane shareholders acquiring a further £8m of new stock.

The fresh capital will be used by Kerogen to drill two new oil wells in the North Sea as part of its Lancaster oil field project. It will allow the company to complete its early production-stage phase of development on the project.

Kerogen will become Hurricane's majority shareholder following completion of the deal, which is expected to be approved at a general meeting on 9 May.

The oil & gas exploration and extraction sectors have traditionally seen little private equity investment. The industry's service sector has been a more typical investment arena for GPs, though recent low oil prices mean this sector has also been particularly quiet for some months.

In May 2013, Carlyle formed an international energy investment team led by a group of industry professionals including Petroplus founder Marcel van Poecke. The team's remit includes oil and gas exploration and production, oil field services and refining, as well as marketing in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. The team has made four investments to date, including UK-headquartered Discover Exploration.

Company
Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Godalming, Surrey, Hurricane is an oil exploration company focusing on naturally fractured basement reservoirs. The company currently has no turnover and obtains working capital exclusively through equity financing.

People
Kerogen – Jason Cheng (co-founder and managing partner).
Hurricane – Robert Trice (CEO).

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• PIPEs
• UK / Ireland
• Industrials
• United Kingdom