In February 2006, when Geneva-based Addax Petroleum Corp. announced its initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the company was producing 74,450 barrels per day. In May of this year, with production up to some 116,000 barrels per day, Addax Petroleum began a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange. Yet, the company, now with a C$6-billion market cap, still has no plans to trade on an American exchange. "At the time we wanted to go public, we only saw two exchanges that would work for us in terms of exchanges that are good for oil and gas," says Michael Ebsary, chief financial officer, "and those were the London and Toronto markets." The IPO was led by RBC Capital Markets and Merrill Lynch Canada Inc. as joint book-runners. Addax Petroleum sold some 21 million shares at C$19.50 each to raise C$409.5 million. President and chief executive Jean Claude Gandur said, "There has been a great deal of interest from investors...with the offering being favorably received in both North America and Europe." Research analysts at Merrill Lynch state in their most recent Addax Petroleum report, "Notwithstanding its obvious leverage to oil prices, from where we stand, 2006 was a successful operating and financial year. Year-over-year, production volumes were up 38%, proved plus probable reserves up 80%, earnings per share increased 21%, and discretionary cash flow per share increased 92%." For more on this, see the November issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.

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