A North Sea oil and gas firm run from Aberdeen is joining the AIM stock market as it prepares to participate in the wave of mergers and acquisitions sweeping the sector.
Bridge Energy has asked to be listed from September 27. On admission to AIM the group expects to have a market capitalisation of about £78 million.
The move comes prior to a growth push at the firm which has exploration and production assets in the UK and Norway and is run by a team including veterans of Scotland's oil and gas and finance sectors.
Bridge's Aberdeen-based chief executive Tom Reynolds had top roles at 3i's oil and gas investment arm and Energy Development Partners after a stint at BP. Chairman William McCall was a director at the Charterhouse Tilney securities group and Singer & Friedlander merchant bank.
The head of Bridge's UK business, Jim Brunton, worked for Clyde Petroleum and Paladin Resources.
Listed on Axess in Norway, Bridge was created through a merger between Aberdeen-based Silverstone Energy and Norway's Bridge Energy in 2010.
The group has a number of projects in development in UK waters that it believes could help it to raise production to 10,000 barrels oil equivalent daily by 2016, from 1810 boed at June 30.
Mr Reynolds said the company expects to be able to use its AIM listing to access a much bigger pot of potential funding for acquisitions and development work. The acquisitions might involve North Sea assets or whole companies.
"Assets or corporates are very much on the table," said Mr Reynolds. He added Bridge might tap AIM investors for "a significant acquisition that makes a material difference to the business".
The company siad it has accumulated $215m (£134m) of tax losses in respect of its UK assets. These could be set against future UK pro-duction revenue. The losses provide what Bridge described as "a tax-efficient platform for potential fur-ther UK asset acquisitions".
The group said it wants to buy "low-maintenance and high-margin production, where cash generative assets can be added, which will release value from the existing tax pool".
It is also interested in deals where a collection of assets can be acquired.
Mr Reynolds declined to comment on potential targets but said the pool could include listed or privately held businesses.
Bridge is proposing to join AIM at a time when analysts expect the consolidation process involving oil and gas firms listed on the market to gather pace.
Some relatively small companies that have potentially attractive acreage may find it hard to get the funding required to develop as independents.
This month North Sea-focused Lochard Energy put itself up for sale.
The company is listed on AIM.
Last week Valiant Petroleum launched a strategic review which it said could result in its sale.
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