About 99.997% of the shareholders at an EGM yesterday voted in favour of the stake disposal, quashing fears that they may seek a higher price for the sale of the shares.
Petra Energy gained 10 sen to end at RM1.79 yesterday while Perdana Petroleum inched up half a sen to close at 65.5 sen.
Asked if Perdana Petroleum could have held out for a better price, managing director Shamsul Saad said when the company announced it was looking to sell its block in Petra Energy, the five-day weighted average price was only RM1.06.
“Whatever the price movement from then on, we had no control,” he said after the EGM.
“When we announced our intention to sell, the price was about 58.5% premium to the trading price, while at the date of the execution our premium was at a 15.9% premium. The movement [of Petra Energy’s shares] as we progressed is beyond our control,” he said.
The largest shareholder of Petra Energy is Sarawak businessman Datuk Bustari Yusuf, who via OBYU Holdings Sdn Bhd, has 30% equity interest. Other notable shareholders include Datuk Mohamed Nizam Razak, brother of premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak, with a 9.1% stake.
“We had more than 46 potential buyers, which was shortlisted to five based on many criteria, for the best price, the financial strength of the bidder … It was a pretty exhaustive exercise, and basically we signed the share sale agreement with Wah
Seong,” Shamsul said.
The run in Petra Energy’s stock could be attributable to talk that the company is close to securing a risk service contract from Petroliam Nasional Bhd to develop marginal oilfields, partnering Canada-based Coastal Energy Co. The oilfields likely to be awarded to Petra Energy and its partners are the Kapal, Banang and Meranti (KBM) clusters, off Peninsular Malaysia.
Perdana Petroleum is looking to partner its 14.88% shareholder Dayang Enterprise Holdings Bhd, which has its mainstay in brownfield services. “Our work barges and work boats can go under their contracts, and we can take up longer-term charters
which go with brownfield contracts … So that enhances the balance on long-term contracts,” Shamsul said.
Perdana Petroleum posted a net loss of RM8.18 million on revenue of RM53.45 million for its first quarter (1Q) ended March 31. Other than a brief respite in the 2Q 2011 when Perdana Petroleum posted an RM8.4 million in net profit, the company has bled
losses for the last seven of its eight quarters.
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on 17 August, 2012.