Perth, Sept 26, 2008 (ABN Newswire) - SAPEX Limited (ASX:SXP) shareholders and optionholders have overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Company's A$104 million merger agreement with Linc Energy Limited (ASX:LNC)(PINK:LNCYF).

Separate Sydney meetings were held today for SAPEX shareholder and optionholder approval for the merger under which Linc Energy proposes to acquire all of the SAPEX ordinary shares it does not hold and under which all SAPEX options are cancelled.

The merger plan - which is being effected by schemes of arrangements - is now subject to approval of the Supreme Court of South Australia.

Under the SAPEX-Linc Energy merger, valuing SAPEX at approximately $104 million, Linc Energy will acquire all of the shares and options in SAPEX for a cash consideration of 72 cents per share and 50 cents per option.

SAPEX shareholders and optionholders also have the alternatives of taking either 50%, or 100%, of the cash consideration in Linc Energy shares at the Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) of Linc Energy shares in the five trading days up to and including the date of the SAPEX shareholders' and optionholders' meetings to approve the Schemes.

SAPEX holds seven Petroleum Exploration Licences (PELs) covering some 65,000 sq km, essentially the entire oil and gas prospective area of the under-explored Arckaringa Basin in central South Australia.

Within that area, SAPEX also holds two mining exploration licences (ELs) covering Weedina (EL 3326) and Wintinna East (EL 3325) (see SAPEX ASX releases dated 28 June 2007 and 9 August 2007), which are also amenable to underground coal gasification (UCG).

The region has the potential for significant discoveries of oil and gas and is also expected to have coal seam gas (CSG) potential from the known sub-bituminous coal deposits.

Linc Energy is a clean coal technology business. Its objective is to bring together two production processes, UCG and Coal to Liquids ("CTL") to achieve the economic conversion of coal deposits into ultra clean and environmentally friendly liquid fuels.

Linc Energy has constructed and commenced commissioning of a CTL demonstration plant at Chinchilla in Queensland and also holds a 60% interest in Yerostigaz in Uzbekistan which is the only commercial UCG operation in the world.

SAPEX is being advised by Baron Partners Limited (corporate) and Piper Alderman (legal) in the SAPEX-Linc Energy merger transaction.