Odyssey Marine nets $8.75M from Oceanica equity transactions

Odyssey Marine Exploration has received $10M from the early exercise of an option held by Mako Resources, an independent investment group, to purchase 8M shares of Oceanica Resources, S. de R.L. owned by Odyssey. Mako was granted the option in connection with Mako's earlier purchase of 15 million shares of Oceanica Resources from Odyssey in February. The option exercise price of $1.25 per share, discounted from the original exercise price of $2.50 per share in order to facilitate this transaction, represents a 25% value increase over the price Mako paid for the Oceanica shares purchased in February. Mako continues to hold the option to purchase an additional seven million shares of Oceanica at $2.50 per share at any time on or before December 31. As part of the company's strategy to maintain a control position in Oceanica, Odyssey has also reached an agreement to purchase 1M shares of Oceanica from another Oceanica shareholder at $1.25 per share in a transaction that provides a one-year option to purchase an additional 1M shares at $2.50 per share. This transaction also grants Odyssey voting rights on an additional 3M shares of Oceanica held by such other Oceanica shareholder so long as there is no change in control of Odyssey. The company stated, "The combination of these transactions adds $8.75M to our cash position."