KUALA LUMPUR (April 22): Investors of Sapura Energy Bhd await the material announcement hinted at last Friday's noon break by the oil and gas services company, which is in the midst of formulating a regularisation plan to address its Practice Note 17 status.

Shares in the company, which undertakes upstream operations and maintenance, offshore fabrication, and drilling services, have been voluntarily suspended from trading since 2.30pm last Friday afternoon.

The suspension points to potential sale of its 50%-owned upstream unit SapuraOMV Upstream Sdn Bhd.

The other 50% stake in SapuraOMV is in the process of being acquired by TotalEnergies from Austria’s OMV Aktiengesellschaft for US$903 million (RM4.32 billion). OMV sold the stake as part of its group strategy that shifted its focus away from Australasia.

OMV bought into SapuraOMV back in 2018 by subscribing to a 50% stake for US$540 million, plus repayment of US$350 million in intercompany debt.

It was reported that Sapura Energy was looking for US$1.2 billion for its stake in SapuraOMV.

SaspuraOMV operates the Sarawak gas fields of SK310 (with a 30% stake) and SK408 (40% stake). It also owns 40% of Block SB412 offshore Sabah, and 30% of Block 30 offshore Mexico, as well as other offshore exploration permits in Western Australia and the Taranaki Basin in New Zealand.

TotalEnergies’ transaction price for the 50% stake in SapuraOMV is bigger than Sapura Energy’s market capitalisation of RM826.92 million, based on its last traded share price of 4.5 sen prior to the suspension.

As at end-January, Sapura Energy had negative total equity of RM4.19 billion, against cash of RM1.45 billion and gross borrowings of RM10.98 billion.

The group is in the midst of coming up with a regularisation plan to address its balance sheet position. At the moment, it has been given until June 10 by the courts to restrain any legal action by creditors, including local vendors and those for its RM10.3 billion multi-currency financing facilities.

At least 75% of these creditors have provided requisite approval-in-principle for its proposed debt restructuring scheme, back in December last year.

Shareholders of Sapura Energy include Permodalan Nasional Bhd via Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (40.73%). Brothers Capital Sdn Bhd, linked to Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin and Datuk Shahriman Shamsuddin, owns a 9.18% indirect stake in the listed entity. Shahril also owns a 0.95% direct stake in Sapura Energy. 

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/node/708793