Sunda Energy Plc (AIM: SNDA) has conditionally raised £5.25 million before expenses through a placing and subscription at 1.5p per share, alongside a separate retail offer seeking up to a further £525,000.
The fundraising is principally intended to fund completion of Sunda’s acquisition of Matahio Energy NZ Limited, which owns and operates five producing petroleum permits in New Zealand’s Taranaki Basin. Matahio NZ produced an average of 1,028 boepd in 2025, with revenue of NZ$35.6 million and EBITDA of NZ$6.6 million.
Sunda now expects the cash payment due on completion to be US$3.6 million, down from the US$5.0 million originally anticipated. Ministerial consent is expected in early October 2026, with completion targeted shortly afterwards, although approval and timing are not guaranteed.
The company intends to use the equity raise instead of drawing further convertible loan notes, arguing that fixed-price equity provides greater funding certainty and should result in less dilution than additional CLN conversions.
The placing comprises 335.1 million new shares, while the subscription adds a further 14.9 million shares. A retail offer of up to 35 million shares is also planned. At full take-up, the placing shares alone would represent around 39.8% of the enlarged share capital, highlighting the scale of the dilution.
The 1.5p issue price represents a 45.5% discount to the 2.75p closing price on 9 September, before the company entered its Capital Access Window. Trading in Sunda shares is expected to resume at 7.30am on 22 September 2026.
Most of the fundraising remains conditional on shareholder approval at a general meeting on 8 October 2026. If those resolutions are not passed, the conditional placing, subscription and retail offer would not proceed, potentially forcing Sunda to seek alternative financing for the acquisition.
For investors, the key trade-off is clear: the raise materially strengthens Sunda’s ability to complete the New Zealand acquisition and replace more dilutive convertible funding, but it also introduces substantial immediate equity dilution at a steep discount.
Sunda Energy plc Chief Executive Officer, Dr Andy Butler, said:
“The oversubscribed Fundraising announced today is a welcome endorsement of Sunda’s repositioning as a full cycle E&P company. The Company can now guarantee upcoming completion payments for the New Zealand acquisition without drawing additional CLNs and following certain contractual formalities and approval of the Resolutions at the General Meeting, the Board intends to cancel the undrawn CLNs. I’m delighted that the Company has secured strong institutional support to complete an acquisition that was enabled by my own material investment, and I thank our incoming and existing shareholders for their participation. The separate WRAP retail offer is intended to allow Sunda’s supportive shareholders to elect to co-invest on the same terms. We look forward to completing the Acquisition, which remains subject to Ministerial consent, and in moving forward to realise the potential in the New Zealand assets in parallel to our efforts to deliver value from the projects in Timor-Leste and the Philippines.”
