Afren PLC Interest payment due on 2020 Notes (7021P)

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RNS Number : 7021P

Afren PLC

10 June 2015

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF THAT JURISDICTION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

10 June 2015

Interest payment due on 2020 Notes

Afren plc ("Afren" or the "Company") provides an update regarding the review of its liquidity and funding requirements.

Further to its previous announcements, the Board has decided to utilise a 30 day grace period under its 2020 bonds with respect to approximately US$11.9 million of interest due on 9 June 2015 pending the completion of the recapitalisation process. The Board anticipates that, given the terms of the consensual restructuring that has been agreed with its principal creditors, it will not pay such interest at the expiry of this grace period. While such non-payment will result in a default under the 2020 Notes, this will not result in an immediate obligation to repay such 2020 Notes or any cross-default under its 2016 Notes or 2019 Notes or its other debt facilities.

The Company has received assurances from the ad hoc committee (which members hold in aggregate approximately 39% of the principal face amount of the 2020 Notes and approximately 33% of the total principal face amount of the 2016 Notes, 2019 Notes and 2020 Notes) that the committee has no current intention to take enforcement action with respect to the 2020 Notes held by its members as a result of any failure to make payment of interest due under the 2020 Notes.

The Company expects to be able to provide further information regarding the terms of the Recapitalisation, including a circular to shareholders regarding the terms of the proposed open offer of new shares, within the next week.

The contents of this announcement will be available at www.afren.com. The content of the aforementioned website is not incorporated into and does not form part of this announcement.

Enquiries:

 
 
   Afren plc Tel.: [phone] 
   Alan Linn, CEO 
  Bell Pottinger (public relations adviser to Afren plc) Tel.: +44 20 
   3772 2500 
   Gavin Davis 
   Henry Lerwill 
 

Notes to Editors

Afren is an independent upstream oil and gas exploration and production company listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the Financial Times Stock Exchange 250 Index. Afren has a portfolio of assets spanning the full cycle E&P value chain. Afren is currently producing from its assets in Nigeria and the Kurdistan region of Iraq and holds further exploration interests in Nigeria, Ghana, Co te d'Ivoire, the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Congo Brazzaville, Kenya, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Seychelles, Tanzania and South Africa. For more information please refer to www.afren.com.

Notices

This announcement is not intended to, and does not, constitute or form part of any offer, invitation or the solicitation of an offer to purchase, otherwise acquire, subscribe for, sell or otherwise dispose of, any securities whether pursuant to this announcement or otherwise.

The distribution of this announcement in jurisdictions outside the United Kingdom may be restricted by law and therefore persons into whose possession this announcement comes should inform themselves about, and observe, such restrictions. Any failure to comply with the restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities law of any such jurisdiction.

Disclaimer and cautionary note on forward looking statements and notes on certain other matters

Certain statements in this announcement are not historical facts and are or are deemed to be "forward-looking". The Company's prospects, plans, financial position and business strategy, and statements pertaining to the capital resources, future expenditure for development projects and results of operations, may constitute forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology including, but not limited to; "may", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "plan", "foresee", "will", "could", "may", "might", "believe" or "continue" or the negatives of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other facts that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future and may be beyond Afren's ability to control or predict. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performances.

Factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different from those projected include, but are not limited to, the following: risks relating to changes in political, economic and social conditions in the countries in which Afren operates; future prices and demand for the Company's products; global oil production; trends in the oil & gas industry and domestic and international oil & gas market conditions; risks in oil & gas operations; future expansion plans and capital expenditures; the Company's relationship with, and conditions affecting, the Company's partners and regulators; competition; weather conditions or catastrophic damage; risks relating to law, regulations and taxation in the countries in which Afren operates, including laws, regulations, decrees and decisions governing the oil & gas industry, the environment and currency and exchange controls and their official interpretation by governmental and other regulatory bodies and by the courts; and risks relating to global economic conditions and the global economic environment. Additional risk factors are as described in the Company's annual report.

Forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this announcement. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release, publicly or otherwise, any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained in this announcement to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which any such statement is based unless so required by applicable law.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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