Caspian Sunrise plc Completion of the Baverstock Merger (7728G)

TIDMCASP

RNS Number : 7728G

Caspian Sunrise plc

01 June 2017

Caspian Sunrise Plc

Caspian Sunrise plc ("Caspian Sunrise" or the "Company")

Completion of the Baverstock Merger

Introduction

Caspian Sunrise, the Central Asian oil and gas company, with a focus on Kazakhstan, is pleased to announce the completion of the merger with Baverstock GmbH, ("Baverstock").

The final condition of the merger was satisfied this morning being the admittance to trading on AIM of the 651,436,544 merger shares ("Baverstock Merger") shares.

Additionally the company is pleased to announce the completion of the capitalisation of some $10.1 million of the Vertom loan. Vertom is a company controlled by the Company's CEO Kuat Oraziman.

Accordingly, under the terms of the Merger Agreement, Caspian Sunrise has issued 651,436,544 new Ordinary Shares to Baverstock. Additionally, a further 80,804,200 Conversion Shares have been issued to Vertom pursuant to the Conversion of Vertom Loan.

Benefits of the Merger

The Caspian Sunrise Group now holds a 99% interest in its principal asset, BNG, which the Caspian Sunrise Board firmly believes should become an extremely valuable asset and 99% interests in its other active asset Munaily.

Previously the funding of the development of BNG was the joint responsibility of Caspian Sunrise and Baverstock on a 59; 41 basis. Following the completion of the Baverstock Merger, Caspian Sunrise can now alone set the pace at which the BNG asset will be exploited.

Other benefits include becoming a materially larger company and the removal of any perceived conflicts of interest connected with the Company's CEO Kuat Oraziman, who is the largest shareholder in Baverstock.

Additionally, with 99% of the operating assets under the direct control of Caspian Sunrise Group it will be possible to simplify the Group structure and better manage the Group's taxation affairs.

Benefits of the Debt conversion

The Company is, except for local oil trader short term funding, essentially debt free

Baverstock's shareholding

Following the completion of the Baverstock Merger and the Vertom debt conversion Baverstock holds 749,436,544 Caspian Sunrise shares representing 44.89% of the enlarged total.

The effective split within Baverstock among the 4 Quota-holders is:

   Kuat Oraziman                                   54.24% 
   Dae Han New Pharm                         30.00% 
   Dosbol Zholdybayev                         13.61% 
   Cody Star Investment                          2.15% 
   Total                                                   100.00% 

Further improvements in transparency

Under the terms of the Merger Agreement Kuat Oraziman and Dosbol Zholdybayev will, in due course, set up their own structures to individually hold their interests in Baverstock, increasing the transparency of the Caspian Sunrise share register.

Resultant shareholdings in the Company (based on shares held by Baverstock being allocated to the individual Quota-holders)

   Kuat Oraziman #                   763,706,615              45.74% 
   Dae Han New Pharm            224,830,963              13.47% 
   Kairat Satylganov                  205,428,656              12.30% 
   Dosbol Zholdybayev             101,998,314              6.11% 

# includes direct holdings, holdings of Vertom and his effective portion of Baverstock

Orderly Markets agreements

Baverstock and Vertom have agreed to enter into an orderly market agreement restricting any disposal of the Consideration Shares and Conversion Shares for a six-month period from the completion of the Merger. Transfers of Consideration Shares to the underlying Baverstock Quota holders (or their nominees) are exempt provided the Baverstock Quota holder enters into an orderly market agreement in like terms.

Total Voting Rights

Following the issue of the Merger Shares and the Vertom Loan Capitalisation shares the total number of Ordinary Shares in issue following is 1,669,673,820.

Caspian Sunrise has no shares in treasury, therefore (subject to any further share issuance prior to Admission) this figure may be used by Shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Clive Carver, Chairman of Caspian Sunrise commented:

"The merger brings 99% of our principal asset BNG under the Caspian Sunrise Group's direct control. We are now free to develop the asset at a pace to suit ourselves."

Comments:

Caspian Sunrise plc [phone]

Clive Carver

Executive Chairman

   WH Ireland, Nominated Adviser & Broker                     [phone] 

James Joyce

James Bavister

Abchurch [phone]

Tim Thompson / Rebecca Clube

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

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June 01, 2017 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)