South African investment company Talent 10 Holdings has made a A$6.5 million strategic investment into Kinetiko Energy Ltd, as the latter looks to develop an energy transition solution for South Africa focused on commercialising advanced shallow conventional gas projects in the Mpumalanga Province.

The ability of KKO to attract the attention of a major player such as Talent 10, whose stakeholders comprise leading South African oil and gas executives, demonstrates the domestic support KKO has for its vision for a major energy transition solution for the country.

Talent10 was established as a South African investment holding company in October 2012 with the vision that by 2020 it would be a significant investment holding company in South Africa with a diversified and integrated portfolio of companies that could have a significantly broader societal impact by growing the businesses and its people. The Talent10 team has subsequently unlocked significant growth in target company investments.

Funds to complete acquisition

The money will be used to complete KKO’s Afro Energy Ltd acquisition from Badimo Gas.

KKO announced on December 24, 2021, that it had executed binding agreements to acquire the remaining 51% of Afro Energy from Badimo that it did not already own.

A condition of the acquisition was a A$6.5 million sale of 567,704,812 consideration shares. The funding will facilitate the sell-down of Badimo Gas consideration shares as part of the planned merger and is non-dilutionary to Kinetiko.

KKO anticipates it will formally close the acquisition of 100% of Afro Energy within the coming weeks.

T10 will receive 72,222,222 of the consideration shares at a price of A$0.09 per share. The A$6.5 million will then be released to Badimo in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement and shareholder approvals.