Iona Energy Announces $20 Million Private Placement Financing

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CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Jan. 18, 2013) -
               
               


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Iona Energy Inc. ("Iona" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:INA), is pleased to announce that it has engaged Casimir Capital Ltd. ("Casimir") to act as lead underwriter on a financing for the Company to raise $20,000,200 through the completion of a private placement on a "bought deal" basis (the "Offering"). The Offering will be in the form of common shares of the Company (the "Shares") at a price of $0.55 per Share. The Company will also grant the underwriters an option exercisable at any time prior to closing to increase the size of the Offering by an additional 15%, which would result in additional gross proceeds to the Company of $3,000,030.
               

The Offering is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Pursuant to applicable securities laws, all securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a hold period of four months following the closing of the Offering. The Offering is expected to close on or about January 31, 2013 in conjunction with the anticipated closings of Iona's previously announced Huntington acquisition, senior secured reserve-based lending facility (the "RBL"), and second lien secured loan notes ("Second Notes").
               

Iona had anticipated funding the Huntington acquisition and its existing property developments through the RBL, Second Notes, and working capital; however, in the course of finalizing lender credit approvals the lenders requested a hold back of several months of projected production revenues to build and maintain a lenders' reserve account to mitigate against perceived potential production fluctuations associated with start-up of production from the Huntington field. This required Iona to raise additional capital to offset the lender's holdback in order to maintain continued liquidity to achieve its development goals.