Navitas' British partner for Falkland Islands drilling prepares for Tel Aviv listing
British firm Rockhopper Exploration, a partner in the Sea Lion project, is preparing for a Tel Aviv Stock Exchange listing. The company raised $200 million, with 40% of its shares already held by Israeli investors.
The British company Rockhopper Exploration, a partner of Navitas in the Sea Lion oil drilling project near the Falkland Islands, is preparing to list its shares for trading in Israel. Rockhopper is traded at a value of 845 million pounds, approximately 3.4 billion shekels, and if and when it lists its shares for trading in Tel Aviv, it is expected to enter the TA-125 index.
The company reported this at the end of the week, alongside an announcement of raising 200 million dollars in a share issuance. 180 million dollars were raised in a private placement, and following that, the company is conducting an open offering of an additional 20 million dollars, a move similar to a rights issue. 40% of Rockhopper's shares are held by Israelis. The hedge funds Noked, Brosh, and AON invested in its first fundraising round a year ago, when it raised 140 million dollars, and also in the current round. It has come to the attention that four Israeli institutional investors — Clal, Harel, Phoenix, and Meitav — accounted for most of the investment in the current round.
Rockhopper holds 35% of Sea Lion and Navitas 65% of the discovery, which is considered the fourth largest in the world for which an investment decision has not yet been made. The cost of the initial phase of Sea Lion is about 2.05 billion dollars and it is expected to yield an output of 420 million barrels of oil. Navitas, controlled by Gideon Tadmor, and Rockhopper are supposed to invest 790 million dollars in the project from their own equity and the remainder through bank financing.
Rockhopper transferred 65% of the rights in the project to Navitas in January 2022 and agreed that Navitas would be the project operator. Navitas, which entered after 1.3 billion dollars had already been invested in the project, committed in return to finance Rockhopper's share in the equity component of the first phase of the project, which stands at 102 million dollars. The holding in Sea Lion is Rockhopper's only asset, and for the Israeli institutional investors who hold its shares, this will be direct exposure to the project and not through Navitas, which has additional projects. The Israeli institutional investors led the appointment of Barak Mishreki, former CEO of Delek Petroleum, as a director about two months ago, and can pass almost any decision in the company, which is managed without a controlling core, by convening a meeting.
