CALGARY, Feb. 14 /CNW/ - Upper Lake Oil and Gas Ltd. (TSX:UP) ("Upper Lake") announced today that it intends to repurchase shares of the Corporation over the next 12 months as part of the Corporation's ongoing strategy to enhance shareholder returns. The Toronto Stock Exchange has accepted Upper Lake's notice to undertake a normal course issuer bid that will expire on February 17, 2009.
As of today's date, Upper Lake has 25,336,798 common shares outstanding. If market conditions permit, Upper Lake intends to acquire up to 1,266,840 common shares, or approximately 5% of the common shares outstanding, from February 18, 2008 to February 17, 2009, subject to a daily purchase limit of 17,355 common shares.
All purchases of common shares will be effected through the facilities of the TSX and cancelled by Upper Lake. Common shares will be purchased at the prevailing market price on behalf of Upper Lake by a registered investment dealer. Upper Lake expects to finance all purchases pursuant to the normal course issuer bid out of working capital.
Management believes purchases of Upper Lake's common shares represent good value for the Corporation. Purchases may serve to enhance returns to shareholders by increasing the equity interest of shareholders who continue to hold common shares.
Upper Lake's assets consist of exploration plays, producing properties, related tangibles and undeveloped lands that were transferred to Upper Lake by Diamond Tree Energy Ltd. in October 2007 pursuant to a plan of arrangement involving Diamond Tree, Crocotta Energy Inc. and Upper Lake. Additional information regarding the asset transfer and the business of Upper Lake is contained in the Diamond Tree Management Information Circular and Proxy Statement dated September 12, 2007, which has been filed with the Upper Lake profile on SEDAR and is available at www.sedar.com.
To the knowledge of Upper Lake, no director, senior officer or other insider of Upper Lake currently intends to sell any common shares under this normal course issuer bid. However, sales by such persons through the facilities of the TSX may occur if the individual's circumstances change or if the individual makes a decision unrelated to these normal course purchases.
Certain information set out in this News Release constitutes forward-looking information. Forward looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "could", "might", "should", "believe" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based upon the opinions and expectations of management of Upper Lake, as at the effective date of such statements and, in certain cases, information provided or disseminated by third parties. Although Upper Lake believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, and that information obtained from third party sources is reliable, they can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties (known and unknown) that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those anticipated or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance upon the forward-looking statements contained in this News Release and such forward-looking statements should not be interpreted or regarded as guarantees of future outcomes. The forward-looking statements of Upper Lake contained in this News Release are expressly qualified, in their entirety, by this cautionary statement. Various risks to which Upper Lake is exposed in the conduct of its business are described in detail in the Diamond Tree Circular which is available under the Upper Lake profile at www.sedar.com. Subject to applicable securities laws, Upper Lake undertakes no obligation to publicly revise the forward-looking statements included in this News Release to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
Upper Lake Oil and Gas Ltd. is a Calgary-based company active in the exploration, development and production of oil and gas in Western Canada. The Company commenced active operations on October 12, 2007 when shareholders, optionholders and warrantholders of Diamond Tree Energy Ltd. ("Diamond Tree") approved an arrangement involving Upper Lake, Diamond Tree and Crocotta Energy Inc. at a special meeting. In connection with the arrangement, certain oil and gas properties of Diamond Tree in central and eastern Alberta consisting of exploration assets, producing properties, related tangibles and undeveloped lands were transferred to Upper Lake. Additional information concerning Upper Lake is available on the Company's website at www.upperlake.ca or on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.