Green Dragon Gas gets $100m for two deals

Green Dragon Gas Ltd - one of the largest independent upstream coal-bed methane production companies in the Chinese market - said on Wednesday that it has received $100 million in cash from two transactions.

The London-listed company was one of the first foreign companies to enter China's coal-bed methane industry, a move tracing back to 1997. The company has invested more than 2.1 billion yuan ($337 million) in total since it entered the Chinese market.

The two new transactions were the sale of its non-core wholesale gas distribution business for $65 million and $35 million raised through the issuance of 7 percent secured bonds together with the issue of 13,675,000 warrants to subscribe for new ordinary shares in the company at an exercise price of 197.216 pence per ordinary share for up to an additional $42 million in exercise proceeds, according to the company.

In May, the company said that it will invest another 2 billion yuan in coal-bed methane development in Shanxi province, one of the traditional coal-producing regions in the country.

China is reported to have about 36.8 trillion cubic meters of coal-bed methane resources, accounting for about 15 percent of the global reserves.