2smart4u2 wrote: Courtesy Carswell $Peak IV From Stock Watch Repoter
It appears Jog Capital still owns around 50 million shares and it's cfo is getting a seat on Surge's board.
Paul Colborne's Alberta- and Saskatchewan-focused Surge Energy Inc. (SGY) lost eight cents to $1.53 on 3.41 million shares, after arranging a $30-million financing of convertible debentures. The conversion price is $2.25 a share. Surge traded at that level as recently as six months ago, but (as the above Mr. Wright might say) it has since been thrown out the window. Surge plans to use the proceeds of the financing to pay down some of the debt owing under its $550-million credit facility. This facility was $408.6-million drawn as of year-end 2018. It is up for renewal in about a month, on May 27, and if it is not renewed by then, the debt could be due as early as May, 2020, something Surge is no doubt keen to avoid. This debt made up the bulk of Surge's total year-end debt of about $461-million. That compares with a current market cap of $473-million.
Somewhat like NuVista, Surge is still digesting a large acquisition from last year, which in its case was the $320-million all-share takeover of Mount Bastion Oil & Gas. The deal boosted Surge's production by about 5,500 barrels of oil equivalent a day. As a result, Surge expects its total 2019 production to average 22,000 barrels a day. It also expects to keep paying its 0.8333-cent dividend, for a yield of 6.5 per cent. One insider seems confident. Director Robert Leach bought 80,000 shares yesterday at $1.59, boosting his position to 1.56 million of Surge's 309 million shares.
In other director news, Surge is about to get a new one. According to a SEDAR filing yesterday in connection with Surge's annual meeting on May 14, current director Keith MacDonald will be stepping down at the meeting and his seat will be taken over by proposed newcomer Michelle Gramatke. Ms. Gramatke is a chartered accountant who has worked in financial services for over 25 years. Those include a handful of years at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Central Asia and Russia, as well as a stint at KPMG focusing on Canadian upstream oil and gas. Since 2004, she has been the chief financial officer of JOG Capital, which owns 48.9 million or 15.8 per cent of Surge's shares. JOG received most of those shares as part of the above takeover of Mount Bastion, of which JOG had owned about 68 per cent. Before the takeover, JOG controlled about 2.9 million shares of Surge. JOG is also a major shareholder of InPlay Oil Corp. (IPO: $1.23) and Leucrotta Exploration Inc. (LXE: $0.90).