North Sea oil and gas exploration and production company Bridge Energy made its debut on the stock market today, with first day trading valuing it at £75million.
The firm, which has offices in Aberdeen and Oslo, had hoped its flotation on the Alternative Investment Market would raise £78million.
Trading started at £1.22 a share and closed at £1.30.
Bridge, whose shares already trade in Norway, said the move would support the next stage in its development.
The firm was created out of a merger of Norwegian firm Bridge Energy and Silverstone Energy in 2010.
Its plan is to grow production from under 2,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to about 12,000 by 2016 through new developments and acquisitions.
It is currently a partner in three active wells – Total’s Garantiana exploration well in the Norwegian North Sea (20%), the Contender prospect being drilled by Taqa off its Cormorant North platform in the northern North Sea (4%), DNO’s Geite’s prospect (30%) and is due to take part in Wintershall’s PL457 Apollo/Draupne prospect (20%).