News

June 17, 2008

Chariot Rides The Waves On The Margins Of The South Atlantic, With A 3.9 Billion Barrel Target

By Alastair Ford

You bump into all sorts of people in and around the bars of St. James’s. Downstairs at Franco’s, Adonis Pouroulis, one of the key backers of Chariot Oil and Gas, sits lunching with your man from soon-to-be-launched Oilresources.com. By co-incidence, at the next table is Jamie Strauss, well-known resources broker with North American investment bank BMO Capital Markets. It’s a striking co-incidence, not just because Jamie is well acquainted with Adonis through long association with Adonis’s diamond company Petra Diamonds, but also because BMO acted as broker to Chariot’s recent £45 million placing and listing of shares at 130p on London’s Aim market. It was a listing that by all accounts went rather well. The shares immediately traded at a premium, closing at 152.5p on the first day of dealings. They eased back a little after that, but have since recovered. And the market seems to like the 152.5p price, because at the time of writing the shares are back there again, even if only on minimal volumes, giving the company a market capitalisation of just under £220 million.

A week later, on the way to Franco’s again, and John McGloin, well known resources broker with UK-based Arbuthnot Securities, hoves into view across the street, deep in conversation on his mobile phone, and no doubt hot-footing it towards some high-finance meeting with one of the local hedge fund managers. Your man from Oilresources.com scarcely deigns to interrupt such serious deal-making, and is anyway late to meet Kevin Broger, Chariot Oil and Gas’s chief executive. On arrival at...