The latest addition to AIM New World Oil and Gas (LON:NEW) got off to a good start this morning with the shares being valued at a premium to its listing price.
The new oil firm is fronted by chief executive William Kelleher, who was one of the founders of Victoria Oil & Gas (LON:VOG) back in 2004.
Right now New World is an investment company and its strategy is to identify and acquire assets that it believes are underperforming or undervalued, where it can use the management team’s expertise and experience to ‘facilitate growth’ or unlock value.
The group was formally incorporated a year ago and it has now raised £3 million with this public listing. The initial focus will be on Central America and eastern Canada.
According to New World it has already developed a pipeline of possible projects as a result of a number of preliminary due diligence exercises over the past year.
"The Directors believe that New World offers a fantastic opportunity to participate in potentially lucrative exploration and production projects in the oil and gas sector,” Kelleher said.
“Having successfully raised £3 million from new investors upon our admission to trading on AIM, we believe that New World is now well placed to carry out its strategy to acquire oil and gas projects where we believe there to be a number of significant opportunities.
"The Directors have already assessed a number of projects in Belize, with a particular focus on the extension of the productive Peten Basin, which the directors believe to be a prolific oil and gas region with extensive volumes of proven oil and gas reserves.
“Other projects currently undergoing evaluation include assets in South America, Eastern Canada and Europe.”
In its first hour of trading New World shares gained 0.125 pence a share, about 2.5 percent, from the listing price to change hands at 5.125 pence a share.