Edmonds' White Nile stake hit for six

FORMER England cricket star Phil Edmonds saw £4m wiped off his paper fortune in oil minnow White Nile today but the shares fared better than expected after re-listing in the City.

Despite gloomy forecasts from short-sellers convinced Edmonds' latest venture would drop like a stone, the shares hit as high as 120p before settling at 112½p.

That is an 18% slide on the 138½p before the shares were suspended three months ago, but dealers in the Square Mile were taken aback by demand for the stock. They had been anticipating a fall to as low as 70p given the uncertainty still surrounding the business.

David Buik of City bookie Cantor Index said: 'The feeling is that if the London Stock Exchange is allowing them to be requoted, then there must be some substance behind the company.'

White Nile hit the headlines in February after announcing a deal to explore for oil in a huge block in South Sudan, a new region set up by a peace agreement in the war-torn African country.

Its shares rocketed 13-fold in just five days before being suspended ahead of formal completion of the deal. The surge took White Nile's market value to £205m, valuing Edmonds' stake at £20m.

French oil major Total still claims rights to the same block, under a 25-year-old deal, but Edmonds was bullish today. He said: 'We have a genuine asset in an area very well-known for oil.'