Following the receipt of a request from Seplat, the board of the Company has received the consent of the UK Takeover Panel (the "Panel") for an extension to the Deadline until 5.00 p.m. on 13 February 2015 to enable the parties to continue their ongoing discussions. By this time Seplat must either announce a firm intention to make an offer for Afren or announce that it does not intend to make an offer for Afren, in which case the announcement will be treated as a statement to which Rule 2.8 of the Code applies. This new deadline can be extended with the consent of the Panel in accordance with Rule 2.6(c) of the Code.