Raven Energy has been forced into the embarrassing position of needing to account for all of its corporate expenses over the last 18 months.

The ASX asked why the company’s admin and corporate spending had been “substantially greater” than estimated outflows in the last five quarters.

Raven says it’s because it raised money from the market six times in that period.

Indeed, corporate advisory fees have been between $165,000 and $200,000 every quarter since the beginning of 2017.

Here’s the full list of expenses in today’s ASX announcement:

Raven raised $8.1 million through six private placements in the last five quarters, 9 per cent of which has gone to advisor Ochre Group Holdings.

Chairman Nathan Featherby sits on the board of Ochre Group, which has charged Raven $1.9 million in fees over about two years.

“Due to the unpredictable timing of when those corporate transactions was [sic] being proposed and considered, and the circumstances that permitted REL to effect the placements at “opportunistic” pricing levels, REL undertook those placements at times earlier than when it had previously thought that it would need to raise capital,” the company said.

Raven says it raised money at “opportunistic pricing levels” each time, but as its share price has only moved between 0.1c and 0.2c since October 2015. It’s unclear how opportunistic that could be.

This year, Raven has turned instead to convertible notes, of which it says it has received $1.35 million. In February they said they had confirmed applications for $2 million and were about to issue another $200,000.

There is one thing shareholders need not worry about, and that’s unsavoury entertainment spending.

Raven spent $6,079 in last year’s June quarter only, on wining and dining.

Raven shares have been suspended from trading since early March pending an announcement of corporate activities around divestments in Botswana.

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