Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised Beacon Energy Plc (“Beacon Energy”) on its acquisition of German oil and gas company Rhein Petroleum GmbH (“Rhein Petroleum”), and the associated placing of shares to raise, in aggregate, gross proceeds of £6m. The acquisition constituted a reverse takeover under the AIM Rules.
The net proceeds, together with Beacon Energy’s existing cash resources, will be used to fund the drilling of the SCHB-2 development well at Erfelden in Germany’s Hesse state, as well as general working capital requirements.
Beacon Energy is an AIM listed international upstream oil and gas company seeking growth through acquisition or farm-in to interests in discovered upstream projects.
Founded in 2007, Heidelberg-based Rhein Petroleum explores and develops oil deposits in Southern Germany.
The multidisciplinary WFW team advising Beacon Energy was led by Global Oil and Gas Sector Head and London Corporate and M&A Group Head Chris Kilburn, working with Associates Clementine Freeth, Jamie Tiru, and Trainee Jonathan Ford. Projects Partner Joe Levin and Senior Associate Jordan Joannides advised on the finance aspects of the transaction, with Partner Richard Stephens and Associate Xiaolei Liu providing tax advice. Hamburg Regulatory, Public Law and Competition Partner F. Maximilian Boemke, Senior Associate Eva Reiter and Associates Julian Kasper, Lara-Katharina Burandt and Marina Scharfenberg advised on the German corporate and regulatory law matters.
Chris commented: “We enjoyed working with the Beacon Energy team on this acquisition and financing and it is a testament to the quality of the team and the assets that they completed the successful equity fundraising in such challenging market conditions. The deal is transformational for Beacon Energy and also demonstrated WFW’s ability to provide international support across our offices within our key sectors with close collaboration between our oil and gas teams in London and Germany”.
Larry Bottomley, CEO of Beacon commented: “WFW have supported Beacon over many years. We appreciate that loyalty and the deep sector and capital markets experience and expertise the WFW team bring which was instrumental to closing out such a transformational and multifaceted transaction”.
