Chrystal Capital’s SFO network invest £13 million into pre-IPO finance for Silurian Hallwood
A large European family office and three additional smaller family offices from Chrystal Capital’s network have invested £13 million into a pre-IPO private placement of shares in Silurian Hallwood Plc, a private shale oil & gas company operating in Poland.
The funds raised will allow Silurian Hallwood to continue to develop its 577,000 net acres of land that lie in the shale oil window of Poland. The licences are adjacent to the conventional oil producing fields across the border in Kaliningrad and have been independently estimated to have over 37 billion barrels of oil in place.
The management team, who collectively bring significant US shale drilling experience, will drill one vertical and one horizontal well with the intent of demonstrating the first shale oil flow in Poland ahead of an IPO later in 2012.
“The funds raised by Chrystal Capital will allow us to reach several important milestones and add significant value to the proposition on the route to IPO.”
The fundraising is the sixth deal completed by Chrystal Capital over the past year taking the total funds raised for Chrystal Capital clients to over £150 million in the last 12 months. It is also Chrystal Capital’s third transaction in the natural resources sector in the same time period, a reflection of the company’s growing reputation as a resources fund raising specialist.
“Silurian Hallwood has a very differentiated story from other shale plays in Poland due to the high probability of oil in our acreage, which is of a similar size to the entire Bakken shale play in the US. This is a very exciting prospect and the funds raised by Chrystal Capital will allow us to reach several important milestones and add significant value to the proposition on the route to IPO.”
“Our ability to raise meaningful capital, despite extremely difficult market conditions, reflects the quality of the Silurian Hallwood and the uniqueness of their asset, as well as the resilient nature of family offices as an important and growing source of capital for both public and private opportunities.”