ANR Altona

1 February 2019

Altona Energy plc

("Altona" or the "Company")

Admission to the NEX Exchange Growth Market

Appointment of UK Non-Executive Director

Subscription for £500,000 of Loan Notes

Altona (NEX: ANR) is pleased to announce that its entire issued share capital of 1,558,957 ordinary shares of 10p each (“Ordinary Shares”) have been admitted to trading on the NEX Exchange Growth Market (“NEX”), with effect from 8.00am GMT on 1 February 2019 (“Admission”).  

The Company has appointed Alfred Henry Corporate Finance Limited (“Alfred Henry”) as its NEX Corporate Advisor. Alfred Henry assisted the Company with its admission to NEX and are well placed to help the Company with its planned strategy.

The Directors, having taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case, warrant that the information contained in this announcement is, to the best of their knowledge, in accordance with the facts and contains no omission likely to affect its import. Likewise, they also confirm that the information not contained within this announcement, but required by the NEX Rules, is available in the public domain and accessible by visiting the Company’s website per the below.

www.altonaenergy.com

Mr Qinfu Zhang, Executive Chairman of Altona, commented, “We are delighted to have made this transition to NEX, which we see as a fast-growing, dynamic UK stock market and one which suits Altona’s capital market needs at this point in its development.

“Although the Company has been through a difficult period in the past 15 months, the role for the board of directors is clear; to assemble a team of experienced professionals who can commit to, and execute, the ambitious strategy that I have been working towards for the past few months.

“This strategy is twofold; firstly, to introduce a vanadium mining project to the Company, the structure of which we are working on currently and we expect to make a more detailed announcement on this exciting project at a later date; and secondly, to reinvigorate our coal to chemical project at Arckaringa in South Australia, where the Company owns the rights of coal reserves exceeding 7 billion tonnes.

“We know we face challenges over the next two years, but with our shareholders continued support, we believe we can secure the funding and build the right team to bring these two significant projects to maturity and finally generate revenues for Altona; something which the Company has not been able to achieve in its long history.

“Finally, we would like to welcome Christian Taylor-Wilkinson to the board, as our UK independent non-executive Director. Christian has over 20 years working in the City and has been working with Altona since 2014 in his capacity as financial PR consultant and knows the Company’s Australian coal project intimately. He will be our point of contact for UK shareholders and act as our corporate governance liaison with our new NEX Adviser.”

For further information, please visit www.altonaenergy.com or contact:

Company Information

Altona is an exploration company focused on the evaluation and development of its significant coal resource exceeding 7 billion tonnes (1.3 billion tonnes historic JORC compliant) in the northern portion of the Permian Arckaringa Basin in South Australia.  Through its wholly owned Australian subsidiary Arckaringa Energy Pty Ltd, Altona holds a 100% interest in three exploration licences covering 1,944 sq. kms in the northern portion of the Permian Arckaringa Basin in South Australia including three coal deposits – Westfield (EL5676), Wintinna (EL5677) and Murloocoppie (EL5678).  All three deposits lie close to the Adelaide to Darwin railroad and the Stuart Highway.

The Company was admitted to trading on AIM on 10 March 2005.  A copy of its admission documents dated 4 March 2005 can be accessed on its website, www.altonaenergy.com.  This website is where items can be inspected under Rule 75 of the NEX Rules for Issuers, from 1 February 2019.

Further to the announcements made by the Company on 2 November 2018 and 16 January 2019 regarding the status of its nominated adviser ("Nomad"), the Board has concluded it is not in a position to appoint a Nomad prior to the deadline of 1 February 2019.  Therefore, trading in the Company's shares on AIM will be suspended today and on 4 March 2019 the admission of its AIM securities will be cancelled.

Shareholders wishing to continue trading in Altona Shares can visit the NEX website for information on which brokers work with the market: https://www.nexexchange.com/traders-brokers/online-trading/

The Ordinary Shares are eligible for CREST settlement.  There are no restrictions on the transfer of Ordinary Shares.  The Company is subject to the UK City Code on Takeovers and Mergers.  The Company holds no Ordinary Shares in treasury.

Details of the Directors

Qinfu Zhang - Executive Director

Mr Qinfu Zhang has over 30 years work experience in the fields of clean energy and manufacturing.  Mr Zhang holds the position of chairman at Wintask Group Limited, Shaanxi Hailang Group, Hlevel Co. Ltd, and Fu'an Biology Technology Co., Ltd.

Chi Ma - Non-Executive Director

Mr Ma is the nominated board representative of Sino-Aus Energy Group Ltd and joined the board in March 2016.  He holds a number of directorships in China and has many years' experience in various companies, including those within sectors such as energy, engineering, real estate and technology. Mr Ma brings a wealth of knowledge and business acumen to the Company

Christian Taylor-Wilkinson – Non-Executive Director

Christian (aged 49) has been appointed a non-executive Director of the board with immediate effect. He has been closely associated with Altona since 2014, as the financial PR adviser to the Company, through his agency, Leander PR, which he founded in 2009. He has spent his professional career in the City and has over 23 years’ experience advising and working alongside companies of differing sizes and across many sectors, and where he has built up a solid reputation and contact base within the small-cap arena.

His background spans investment banking (as a corporate broker at UBS), before moving into investor relations and financial PR in 2001. He has a broad perspective of the capital markets landscape, as well as a deep understanding into the needs of businesses and their shareholders.

The Company is in discussions with a number of candidates to appoint a second UK-based non-executive director.

Loan Notes

Sino-Aus Energy Group Limited (“Sino-Aus”) has contracted to subscribe £500,000 for 500,000 7 per cent Convertible Unsecured Loan Notes 2020 of the Company.  The subscription moneys are payable within 90 days.

The Notes are convertible at any time prior to their final redemption date of 31 July 2020.

The conversion price is to be the average middle market price at which the Company’s ordinary shares are traded during the twenty business days immediately preceding conversion, subject to a minimum conversion price of 10p (being the nominal value of the ordinary shares). The conversion right is not however, exercisable in circumstances in which the aggregate beneficial interests in the Company’s equity securities, of Sino-Aus and others treated under the Takeover Code as acting in concert with Sino-Aus, would exceed 29.9 per of the Company’s issued ordinary share capital, if conversion took place.   

The Loan Note Instrument constituting the Notes contains usual events of default provisions.

The Notes will not be traded on any stock exchange.

Sector classification

Mining

Registered Office and Principal Place of Business

The Company’s Registered Office is:

16 Finborough Road

London

SW10 9EQ

The Company’s principal place of business is South Australia.

Shareholder Information

The percentage of Ordinary Shares not in public hands as at 18 January 2019 is 35.23%.

*Qinfu Zhang is the Chairman of Wintask Group Limited and Chi Ma is the representative of Sino-Aus Energy Group Limited.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014.

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