Stocks & Investing
Stocks and Investing
Stocks and Investing
Tue, February 17, 2009
Mon, February 16, 2009
Fri, February 13, 2009 BPZ Energy Announces Pending $48 Million Private Placement of Common Stock
HOUSTON--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--BPZ Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BPZ) announced today the pending private placement of its common stock for gross proceeds of approximately $48 million. The Company will sell approximately 15.7 million shares to 13 institutional investors at a price of $3.05 per share.
No warrants or other dilutive securities will be issued to the investors in connection with the private placement. The shares are being placed by Pritchard Capital Partners, LLC, with Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. serving as financial advisor. This transaction is contingent upon approval and subsequent execution of the closing documents in their final form as well as approval of the additional listing of shares by the New York Stock Exchange.
Proceeds of the offering will be used primarily to fund the ongoing oil development in the Corvina and Albacora oil fields in the Company's offshore Block Z-1, including payment of accounts payable incurred in connection with such development, and general corporate purposes consistent with the Company's operating plan as described in its public filings.
Manolo Zúñiga, President and Chief Executive Officer commented, "This equity raise was undertaken to help assure the Company can continue operations to increase production in Corvina, and grow new reserves and bring on new production from Albacora. The support of the institutions participating in this equity raise should give the market an indication of the strength of our asset base and the upside we could see in the future. As announced yesterday, we continue to work toward closing the Natixis reserves based financing, as this equity raise will strengthen the balance sheet of the Company which should allow potential banks participating in the $90 million debt facility to assume less risk. The new equity, the expected free cash flow from our growing operations, and the remaining $35 million of the initial $50 million borrowing base from the Natixis facility, which is expected to grow as we increase production and reserves, should allow us to move forward with the capital expenditures previously announced totaling approximately $86 million for 2009. This in turn should allow us to achieve our goals of exiting 2009 with approximately 10,000 barrels per day of production and doubling proved oil reserves." Mr. Zúñiga continued, "With our realized Corvina oil sales price tracking to Brent less approximately 8%, this year we have been enjoying an oil price of approximately $41 per barrel even though West Texas Intermediate is now trading at a much larger discount to Brent, and in addition we are recovering the approximately $12 million of 19% value added tax (VAT) paid last year, bringing the actual average oil price to approximately $49/bbl which we will realize until the Company has recovered the VAT previously paid. It is important for our investors to understand the positive nature of having our Corvina oil price track to Brent during these volatile months." Mr. Zúñiga concluded, "I am very pleased that our largest investors stepped in at this critical time, and that we also attracted a series of new investors, which demonstrates the support our investors have delivered through this offering. We are in a stronger position to continue growing the Company."
Additional Information
The private placement shares will be issued under Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The shares issued will be restricted shares and will not be eligible for trading until registered with the SEC. The Company will commit to file a registration statement covering the shares no later than 45 days after the closing, and will use its reasonable best efforts to obtain its effectiveness no later than 120 days after closing. The Company currently has 78,748,390 common shares outstanding, with fully diluted shares of 82,642,738. The fully diluted shares include the potential effect of vested and unvested options, and restricted stock outstanding.
About BPZ Energy
Houston based BPZ Energy is an oil and gas exploration and production company which has exclusive license contracts for oil and gas exploration and production covering approximately 2.4 million acres in four properties in northwest Peru. It also owns a minority working interest in a producing property in southwest Ecuador. The Company is currently executing the development of the Corvina oil discovery, the redevelopment of the Albacora oil field, and the exploration of Block XIX, in parallel with the execution of an integrated gas-to-power strategy, which includes generation and sale of electric power in Peru and the development of a regional gas marketing strategy. The Company's website at [ www.bpzenergy.com ] provides additional information about the Company's plans, including photographs and other information with respect to its operations.
Forward Looking Statements
This Press Release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.These forward looking statements are based on our current expectations about our company, our properties, our estimates of required capital expenditures and our industry.You can identify these forward-looking statements when you see us using words such as "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believes," "plans" and other similar expressions.These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties.Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward looking statements.Such uncertainties include the success of our project financing effort, including final documentation and execution of debt financing documents with IFC and Natixis, accuracy of well test results, satisfaction of well test period requirements, well refurbishment efforts, successful production of indicated reserves, and the successful management of our capital development project and other normal business risks.We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available or other events occur in the future.We caution you not to place undue reliance on those statements.
