Rockhopper Exploration - Sea Lion funding outlook strengthened

Rockhopper (RKH) has announced that, together with Premier Oil, it has signed Heads of Terms with Navitas Petroleum to farm down a 30% interest in the Sea Lion project. The deal increases confidence that project debt financing to the joint venture can be secured successfully for Sea Lion Phase 1 of development, while Rockhopper maintains a material 30% stake in Sea Lion, and Premier 40% and operatorship. Rockhopper’s share of project costs will now be covered from 1 January 2020 through to Phase 1 completion, pending sanction. Meanwhile, partner Premier has announced a series of significant North Sea M&A deals, which materially strengthen its balance sheet and further support the Sea Lion project financing discussions. We update our valuation to account for the farm-down deal and roll forward the discount date, resulting in a risked valuation of 53.7p/share, down from 79.6p/share.