Aabar Petroleum To Buy 48% Of Pearl Energy From Austindo
The UAE’s Aabar Petroleum Investments Company announced on 29 January that it plans to buy a 48% stake in Pearl Energy from the Indonesian-based Austindo Group. Aabar’s purchase of Pearl Energy will further its aim to build a strong business in oil and gas exploration, drilling and production. Pearl Energy is a Singapore-based oil and gas company involved in exploration, development and production of oil and gas in South East Asia. It became the first pure oil exploration and production company to be listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading (SGX-ST) on 20 April 2005.
The transaction is valued at around Singapore Dollars (SGD) 418mn ($255mn) and will be accomplished through a put and call option agreement. The option price represents a 13% premium over Pearl Energy’s SGD1.73 per share closing price on 27 January and is a 30% premium over its weighted average price for the preceding three months. If the put and call options are exercised on stipulated periods between 2 March and 28 April this year, Aabar can then launch a general offer to all Pearl Energy shareholders. Pearl Energy reported a net profit of $7.5mn in the third quarter of 2005 and is set to report its fiscal 2005 results on 1 March.
Aabar’s acquisition of Dalma Energy, an onshore drilling company operating in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and India, in July last year marked its entry into the drilling sector (MEES, 15 August 2005). Aabar listed its shares on the Abu Dhabi Securities Market (ADSM) on 19 November last year (MEES, 28 November 2005) and its initial public offering (IPO) was 800 times oversubscribed (MEES, 2 May 2005). With initial paid up capital of Dh900mn ($245mn) and 900mn shares, Aabar became the first listed publicly-owned oil and gas company in Abu Dhabi. Its aim is to create a major oil and gas play for the GCC – a Halliburton or Schlumberger of the region. On the Pearl Energy transaction, Austindo Group is being advised by JP Morgan (financial) and Allen and Gledhill (legal) and Aabar is being advised by Deutsche Bank (financial) and Wong Partnership and Simmons & Simmons (legal).
