< "> edit this post http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc-%28afr%29/rns/trading-statement-and-operations-update/201301210700069619
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/2012-full-year-results/201303250700107200A/

In an attempt to cut down the header page,i've transferred some of the older news to Page1 post No.3.

http://www.oil-price.net/index.php?lang=en
http://www.ft.com/home/uk

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201111020700081674R
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201111150700250723S
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201112010705051251T
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201201170700146472V
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201201230701479690V
http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4323758
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201204170700164488B
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201205140700212304D
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201205210700407032D
http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4430164
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc-%28afr%29/rns/significant-new-seychelles-3d-seismic-programme/201212120700052973T/
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/2013-half-yearly-results/201308230700063334M/
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/ogo-drilling-and-resources-update/201311190700083404T/
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/trading-statement-and-operations-update/201401280700096280Y/
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/interim-management-statement/201405200700135209H/
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/interim-management-statement/201410300700116483V/
http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4942625
http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4943375

load of bollox!

pass the hat round lol

LONDON (Alliance News) - Afren PLC Friday said the proposed takeover offer from SEPLAT Petroleum Development Co PLC will not proceed, but the Nigerian oil and gas exploration and development company said that it reserves the right to "announce an offer or possible offer or make or participate in an offer or possible offer" for Afren within the next six months under certain circumstances or with the consent of the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers. -

Stand by for huge dilution for current holders.
2517

nice1 - this might be odd but when i hear 'nigeria' i just get this feeling of not trusting anything afr says - which is probably one of the reasons afr is in such sore straits after the recent problems it has had - so i take anything from the bod with a pinch of salt

that reminds me - got a real lucky phone call today - i have won the nigerian lottery i never entered apparently - they just need me to send £100k cash to cover admin fees and some nigerian taxes, i will be sending the cash with my date of birth, passport number and all my bank passwords of course - sounded like a real friendly genuine person on the phone, even kindly offered to send a taxi free of charge to pick up the cash............. LOL
gl

2517 - yep if so dilution will be very large - if no dilution or no other offers afr is kaput - go into admin and come out the other side & assets picked up for peanuts by say errrrrrrrrrrr................. seplat? LOL

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/marketreport/11412329/Bwin-plunges-as-bid-hopes-fade.html

Heavily indebted Nigerian oil explorer Afren, a focus for retail investors, endured a volatile session. News that takeover talks with potential suitor Seplat had collapsed prompted a 36.7pc intraday plunge in the stock, only for optimistic private investors to push the shares back up again to close 0.165p higher at 7.275p, a 2.3pc advance. The gain came despite the fact shareholders now face significant dilution from a fund-raising.

Dilution perhaps but if the company survives the sp will be way above current levels !...

RF

What is your average price of your Afren shares , did you place a stop loss ? if not think about a short on 30 to 45% of your shares

DYOR

I have no idea.....I just need the company to survive....it's not a pretty picture I can tell you...don't like stop losses because downward spikes can stop you out....The Ukraine crisis is perhaps sending crude up a bit....can't see that peace treaty lasting 5mn...

So you would be happy for it to survive at any price [ 2p ] , why not go short on 45% of your holding

As per Wardy above, this from Sunday Times re Afren and then TK.

INVESTORS in Afren face being wiped out under a rescue deal being finalised by the company’s lenders.

The beleaguered London-listed oil producer announced on Friday that it had ended rescue takeover talks with rival Seplat.

Afren, once a stock market darling, was worth £1.4bn last summer before the oil price fall and a pay scandal led to a share price collapse. On Friday its stock closed at 8p, valuing it at just £79m. Afren said last month that it needed to raise more than £200m to stay afloat.

With the Seplat rescue dead, bondholders are hammering out a recapitalisation plan that would allow Afren to survive, but in effect give them control.

An ad-hoc committee representing 40% of Afren’s $860m in bonds last week became “restricted”, meaning they have been handed the non-public financial information they need to engineer the financing.

Details are still being hammered out, but the bailout is likely to have several elements, including new loans and a debt for equity swap. The bondholders are being advised by restructuring specialists at Blackstone.

Sources close to the situation said there is an outside chance that Bert Cooper, an Afren co-founder who left the company several years ago, could table a rival plan backed by a handful of big Chinese investors.

Afren has little time. It faces a $50m (£32m) loan repayment in a fortnight. The scuffle for control marks the latest in an extraordinary string of events that turned one of the great London market success stories into a scandal-ridden disaster.

Afren shocked shareholders last summer when it suspended chief executive Osman Shahenshah, the operations head Shahid Ullah, and two other executives over allegations that they had received “unauthorised payments”. The executives were fired three months later. Shahenshah and Ullah have since given back $20m to Afren, but have denied wrongdoing.

The 50% oil price drop has created an acute cash crunch. Afren’s predicament was worsened when its interim management wrote off assets in Kurdistan, for which it paid $588m four years ago.

■ Controversial oil executive Todd Kozel is looking to raise money for a private vehicle to buy oil assets in Kurdistan. The American founded Gulf Keystone, one of the largest producers of oil in the semi-autonomous region of northern Iraq.

Last year Kozel resigned as chief executive after investor revolts over his huge pay packages. It is understood that Kozel has hired Hannam & Partners, the boutique advisory firm set up by former JP Morgan Cazenove rainmaker Ian Hannam, to find backers for his new venture. Several companies that rushed in to Kurdistan in recent years are selling out.

It is understood that Kozel has no plans to float his company on the stock market.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/Industry/article1519046.ece

From the Financial Times this weekend ;-)

Afren abandons talkover talks with Seplat

Michael Kavanagh

Afren, the London-listed oil and gas explorer, abandoned takeover talks with Seplat, just hours ahead of a deadline for the Nigerian oil operator to make a formal offer.
Shares in Afren fell as much as 40 per cent to an intraday low of 4.08p on Friday before settling 2.53 per cent higher at 7.28p, after it said Lagos-listed Seplat had failed to come forward with an acceptable proposal.

In a statement, the cash-strapped company said Seplat’s indicative offer had been “significantly below the aggregate value of the debt of the company”.
It added that it would not agree to Seplat’s request for a further extension from Friday on the deadline to make a firm offer.

The deadline of Friday 13 was the last of three extensions for Seplat following confirmation of an approach in December for its cash-strapped target, which has gross debts of $1bn.

Afren said on Friday it would focus on its discussions with bondholders, as well as new third-party investors, which are aimed at securing the future of the business whose shares traded as high as 166.6p last May.
Seplat declined to state the value of its rejected approach, but said it had put a written proposal to the company “that provided critical and significant near-term liquidity and value for the stakeholders of Afren”.

Late last month, Afren agreed with lenders to defer a $50m repayment that had been due by the end of January and also confirmed it would make use of a 30-day grace period by delaying payment on $15m of interest payments on bonds due on February 1.


“The company is continuing discussions with the advisers to the ad hoc committee of its largest bondholders regarding the immediate liquidity and funding needs of the business,” Afren said.

Stephane Foucaud, an analyst at FirstEnergy, said the collapse of talks with Seplat was disappointing, but said existing shareholders still held some power in attempting to strike a favourable deal with bondholders and any new equity investors which could ward off company failure.

“It arguably [is] not in the interest of shareholders, nor bondholders nor even a potential buyer for the company to be put in administration and the equity to be wiped out entirely,” said Mr Foucaud.

He added: “Should the company be in default and put into administration, we understand that there are change of control clauses on key assets that could imply that Afren could lose assets.”

Turnround specialist Alvarez & Marsal — the group that dealt with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Arthur Andersen — has been hired to help rescue Afren, which last year sacked its chief executive and chief operating officer for gross misconduct in a scandal over their receipt of unauthorised payments.

Order book very weak at the moment on the bid side

and share price sliding bit by bit, will see if intraday support at around 6.60p holds

note - not holding the stock

------------------ Intraday Brent Oil ----------------------------------------- 2 month ---------------


Gogle finance - good chart on the link
good chart and more at the link
Google finance - AFR

still not high enough to short, but most certainly would not buy either

Its a tricky trade

that's why it's better to do nothing :-)

That's why OXS is the share of the moment!

Ramp