10 per cent sold to instos in raising

From afr.com:

10pc stake goes in Central Petroleum
PUBLISHED: 0 hour 13 MINUTES AGO | UPDATE: 0 hour 13 MINUTES AGO PRINT EDITION: 03 Apr 2012 Edited by Sarah Thompson and Anthony Macdonald

Three multibillion-dollar funds are understood to have taken a combined 10 per cent stake in exploration company Central Petroleum, in a placement made to institutions overnight.

Central Petroleum was placed in a trading halt on Friday night to allow the company’s brokers to raise $11 million at 8.5¢ a share. The stock is expected to resume trading as early as Tuesday.

Central Petroleum has been the subject of heavy trading recently. Shares in the $132 million explorer have increased from 5¢ to 10.5¢ in the past month on large volume.

One buyer has been Petroleum Nominees Pty Ltd, which is yet to become a substantial shareholder notice but has quickly become the company’s largest listed shareholder.

Petroleum Nominees owns 47.4 million shares or 3.8 per cent of the company, according to a list of Central Petroleum’s top 20 shareholders published on the company’s website.

Petroleum Nominees was only registered on March 12, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents. Its sole director is Xin Zhong and is set up at 38 Queen Street in Brisbane – where Clive Palmer also has an office.

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