HIGHWOOD ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD. APPOINTS JOEL MACLEOD AS EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN

CALGARY, AB, Feb. 23, 2023 /CNW/ - Highwood Asset Management Ltd., ("Highwood" or the "Company") (TSXV: HAM) is pleased to announce that Joel MacLeod has been named Executive Chairman by the Highwood Board of Directors.  Mr. MacLeod is the largest shareholder of Highwood, controlling approximately 67% of currently outstanding shares of the Company.  Mr. MacLeod's appointment is intended to support Highwood's growth strategy, focused on taking advantage of the distressed valuations of conventional energy assets in Western Canada.   

Mr. MacLeod brings a successful track record of generating outsized shareholder returns, including returns in excess of 800% in entities where his shareholding position exceeded 35% (1080766 Alberta Ltd., Predator Oil Ltd., Predator Midstream Ltd and Battle River Energy).

"I am excited to join the Highwood Team, with a platform to take advantage of a generational opportunity where we can acquire high quality energy assets, with sub 12 month payout capital projects, at ~2 - 3x operating cashflow. We plan to be extremely active over the coming quarters and beyond, with a view to aggressively grow Highwood's asset base, focusing on conventional energy production in the near term.  Our investment and capital allocation strategy will focus on investments with the highest cash on cash returns while maintaining significant insider ownership and participation to ensure alignment with capital providers," stated Mr. MacLeod. "Our near term focus will be:

• Multiple conventional energy production acquisitions while incorporating our industry leading midstream, downstream, energy transition expertise in reducing carbon intensity and most importantly, increasing realized pricing of all products
• Continue to progress the development of our Drumheller southern Alberta lithium asset which has an initial Inferred Resource of 18.14 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent⁽¹⁾

We look forward to leveraging 15+ years of capital markets support, credit support, government support, and potential First Nations partnerships across multiple opportunities. Shareholder alignment and material insider ownership remains critical to our strategy and we thank our shareholders and stakeholders for all their support."

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" or "FLI" within the meaning of the Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information is generally identifiable by use of the words "believes," "may," "plans," "will," "anticipates," "intends," "budgets", "could", "estimates", "expects", "forecasts", "projects" and similar expressions, and the negative of such expressions. Forward-looking information in this news release include statements about the Company's next steps which include potential acquisitions, advancing the lithium assets, continued exploration and development work, including in respect of the potential extraction technology, continued sampling and developing a reservoir model, and the evaluation and potential spinout of a pure play lithium company, as well as the specific assumptions used to develop such FLI and the specific risk factors.

In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, Highwood ‎has made numerous assumptions, regarding, among other things: the geological, metallurgical, ‎engineering, financial and economic advice that Highwood has received is reliable and is based ‎upon practices and methodologies which are consistent with industry standards. While ‎Highwood considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently ‎subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies.‎

Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause Highwood's actual ‎results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, ‎performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information ‎contained herein. Known risk factors include, among others: the lithium-brine resource ‎assessment may not be completed as planned or at all, the exploration and continued sampling ‎may exceed the budget; continued sampling and the reservoir model may not achieve the results ‎expected; investor support for a pure play lithium public spinout; the need to obtain additional ‎financing; uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay ‎in exploration or development programs and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program ‎milestones; uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals.‎

A more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties facing Highwood is disclosed in ‎Highwood's continuous disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities at ‎www.sedar.com. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this ‎cautionary statement, and Highwood disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such ‎forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the ‎forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events, or developments, ‎except as required by law.‎

Note (1) NI 43-101 Technical Report‎

Highwood commissioned APEX Geoscience Ltd. to prepare a National Instrument 43-101 Report ‎effectively dated February 21, 2022 (the "Technical Report") to detail the inferred resource ‎assessment for the Company's Drumheller Property. The Drumheller Property comprises approximately ‎‎23.5% of Highwood's total Alberta and British Columbia land position. The Technical Report for the ‎Project is available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and on the Company's website.‎  Readers are directed to the press release dated February 28, 2022 at www.sedar.com  for further disclosure related to the Technical Report and inferred resource disclosure disclosed herein.

SOURCE Highwood Oil Company Ltd.

Greg Macdonald, President and Chief Executive Officer, 587.393.0862, [email protected]; Joel MacLeod, Executive Chairman, 403.803.9006, [email protected]