Arden Partners hails Eastern promise

Great Eastern Energy fanned the flames of investor enthusiasm for coal-bed methane when its house broker set a 500p price target on the back of the India-focused company’s recent drilling success and dramatically increased estimates of its reserves.

Arden Partners could barely conceal its joy. “A sales agreement with one of the major steel plants in the [Indian] region, perhaps by mid-year, will demonstrate pricing, demand and deliverability,” it predicted. Shares in Great Eastern leapt 27½p to 222½p.

The rush of investor support in the sector began when BG Group launched a bid for Origin, the Australian producer, which supplies China with the gas extracted from coal seams in Queensland.

Shares in Island Oil and Gas, the explorer whose shares have been hammered by debt and lack of producing assets, rose 9p to 30p after it sold its Amstel oilfield off the Netherlands, for $25 million (£12.76 million) in cash and a $10 million loan, a big profit on its $800,000 investment. It will use the money to repay an earlier loan. Davy, the house broker, values the group at above 80p per share.

MDM Engineering, which builds processing plants for mid-sized miners in Africa, rose 4½p from its 145p float price on its first day of trading on AIM.

Colliers CRE, the commercial real estate consultant, fell 13p to 61½p after Sir John Ritblat, the chairman, said that fees this year would be below expectations as clients are reducing office expansion plans.

Northern Petroleum rose 9p to 140½p on gas production from its Netherlands fields that were higher than expected.

About GEECL:
Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd. (GEECL), a part of the YKM Holdings Group, is the first Private Sector Company in India to explore, develop, distribute and market Coal Bed Methane. In December 2005, GEECL became the first Indian Company to be listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The notional market capitalisation of the Company as of July 13, 2007 was GBP 172 million / US$ 350 million.

The organization, headed by Mr. Y.K. Modi, is exploring & developing production wells for Coal Bed Methane in Raniganj coalfields, West Bengal. GEECL has completed 23 vertical production wells. All the wells are drilled, logged, cased, cemented and fractured. Apart from this 8 Core hole have drilled for desorption and other studies. Learn more about GEECL on http://www.geecl.com.

Prashant Modi - President & COO
Mr. Prashant joined the YK Modi Group in 1996 and was involved with the restructuring of a group company operating a significant tea estate business and its subsequent sale to Unilever. Prior to this he held positions at Qualcomm. Inc. in San Diego, USA and ANZ Investment Bank in London. He holds a degree from Boston University in Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. His concentration was in finance with a minor in economics. He has also completed an executive education program at Harvard Business School. He is responsible for the day to day affairs of the Great Eastern Energy Corporation Limited. Read more about Prashant Modi on http://www.prashantmodi.com

Dolly Tayal, Genesis B-M
dolly.tayal@bm.com - +91 9899101140
807-B Signature Towers, South City,
Gurgaon 122 001
Tel: +91 124 408 8999,
Fax: +91 124 408 6663

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This release was published on openPR.