Xcite Energy notified of shareholdings by Fidelity, Ignis and Standard Life

Following closing of the latest placing last week, Xcite Energy (TSX-V, AIM: XEL) has received formal notification from three investors today of their respective holdings in the group, which is currently developing the Bentley oilfield in the North Sea.
Fidelity Investment Services (UK) holds 12 million ordinary shares in Xcite, representing 8.99 percent of the issued and outstanding share capital. Standard Life Investments holds 7.25 million shares, or 5.43 percent.  Further, Ignis Investment Services notified Xcite it controls 10 million company shares, equivalent to a 7.49 percent.
Last week Xcite closed its £24.9m (C$38.4m) placing of new ordinary shares, principally to institutional investors, having issued shares at £0.40 per share to investors in the UK and at C$0.62 per share to North American investors. The proceeds will be used in the development of the Bentley field.
"This fund raising represents a significant step forward for the company in the overall achievement of the development plan for the Bentley field”, Xcite Energy chief executive Richard Smith had commented. “Now that we have the finance in place, we have the resources to drill the 9/3b-R well expected to commence during the summer of 2010".
With the support of its development partners, collectively known as the Bentley Alliance, Xcite has been making rapid progress in the development of the Bentley field. The planned pre-development well represents the company’s next step towards full production following the BP (LSE: BP) off-take agreement signed in January 2010.

The international oil major’s BPOI unit will sell the crude from the Bentley field in return for an incentive-based fee per barrel. The off-take fee is directly related to the realised price achieved by BPOI for the Bentley crude oil in relation to the prevailing Brent crude price, thus incentivising BPOI to maximise the price per barrel achieved for XER by minimising the discount to Brent crude.

Furthermore the FTSE100 constituent is also supporting the commercial development of the Bentley oilfield. BPOI will procure US$20 million of financing from a commercial bank for Xcite and provide credit support from BP once Xcite moves to full field development.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/14928/xcite-energy-notified-of-shareholdings-by-fidelity-ignis-and-standard-life--14928.html