Dentons is advising Hurricane Energy plc (Hurricane), the oil and gas fractured basement specialist, on its US$520 million fundraising, launched yesterday. The fundraising is one of the largest attempted by an oil company in London since 2014, when crude oil prices plummeted.
Hurricane has conditionally raised US$300 million in equity and US$220 million of convertible bonds through an accelerated bookbuild process which closed earlier this morning. The proceeds are intended to be used by Hurricane to develop one of the most promising untapped oilfields on the UK continental shelf – specifically to finance an early production system at its Lancaster field. The deal is conditional on shareholder approval which will be sought at a general meeting to be held in late July. Kerogen Capital, an energy-focused investment fund, which is Hurricane’s biggest shareholder, and a number of other institutions participated in the fundraise.
The deal represents Hurricane's third major fundraise in just over a year. The company raised over US$100 million in aggregate in two separate fundraisings in 2016 with Dentons advising on both of those transactions.
The equity and debt capital markets team at Dentons supported Hurricane and its General Counsel Daniel Jankes on the fundraise, fielding a team led by partner Darren Acres and managing associate Simon Mitchell on the equity side, with partners Nick Hayday and Nik Colbridge advising on the convertible bonds. London-based US securities partner Cameron Half advised on the US securities aspects of the deal with partner Alex Tostevin, a recent arrival in the Dentons tax team, leading on the tax aspects of the transaction.
The deal is one of the largest announced fundraisings on AIM this year and validates Dentons' corporate growth strategy of continuing to invest in its emerging company client base, its sector focus areas and its team of lawyers focused on domestic and international debt and equity capital markets.
Cenkos Securities and Stifel Nicolaus Europe are the joint bookrunners on the deal.
