Matrix Capacity sustains appetite for SPACs

by **Cals** Sat 27 Jul 2013, 11:33

Published: Saturday July 27, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Saturday July 27, 2013 MYT 7:07:28 AM
Matrix Capacity sustains appetite for SPACs

BY TEE LIN SAY
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THE appetite for special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) would appear insatiable. Hopeful of a listing by year-end on Bursa Malaysia is Matrix Capacity Petroleum Bhd, which again, is in the oil and gas sector.
Matrix will be the largest SPAC hopeful of a listing as it is looking to raise US$350mil (RM1.09bil) from the listing exercise. The board of directors comprise of four members so far, two which are well known Malaysian corporates - Asgari Mohd Fuad Stephens of Mudajaya Group Bhd fame, and Tan Sri Syed Anwar Jamalullail, who is presently chairman of Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd.
The other directors are exploration and production experts Basil Law from Shell Sabah and Sarawak, and Dr Peter Wentworth from the BP Group of companies. Both have many years of experience in the oil and gas industry.
RHB Investment Bank Bhd is the investment bank which will be making the submissions to the Securities Commission next month.
Pareto Securities Pte Ltd, a Nordic energy focused investment bank, and RHB are the joint bookrunners for this SPAC listing. The marketing for its initial investors have now begun, say sources.
Pareto is in charge of the overseas portion while RHB will be handling the Malaysian portion.
Sources say Matrix will also be targeting to acquire assets either in the development or production lifecycle of the oil and gas segment in Asia.
The source adds that there was also an advisory panel board, which consisted of big names from the international oil and gas arena. This panel would advise Matrix when it reached the point of making its qualified acquisition.
The panel members include Ian Lundin, who is chairman of Lundin Petroleum and Keith Hill who is president and CEO of Africa Oil Crop. The other member is Harry Doust.
Lundin Petroleum has exploration and production assets mainly in Norway and South East Asia. It also has assets in France, Netherlands and Russia.
Investors may remember Asgari best during his time as chairman of Mudajaya Group Bhd between 2011 and 2012. He is currently a director of Maxis Bhd and Privasia Technology Bhd. Asgari is also a director at Jaycorp Bhd.
He is also the director and founding member of Intelligent Capital Sdn Bhd. He has been involved in several start-up companies as an angel investor and has been actively involved in building their businesses as mentor. He also co-founded Kumpulan Sentiasa Cemerlang Sdn Bhd, an investment advisory and fund management group.
Meanwhile, Syed Anwar Jamalullail is presently also the chairman of Nestle (M) Bhd, Lembaga Zakat Selangor, and Pulau Indah Ventures Sdn Bhd (a joint venture company between Khazanah and Temasek of Singapore). He is also the Chancellor of SEGi University.
Syed is the former chairman of the Lembaga Tabung Haji Investment Panel. He was also formerly the chairman of Media Prima Bhd, MRCB Bhd, DRB-Hicom Bhd, EON Bank Bhd, Uni Asia Life Assurance Bhd, Uni Asia General Insurance Bhd and Executive Chairman of Realmild (M) Sdn Bhd and Radicare (M) Sdn Bhd. He was also an independent director of Maxis Bhd and Bangkok Bank Bhd.
The excitement over SPACs is almost palpable especially with the significant share price performances of Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd and Cliq Energy Bhd. Sona Petroleum is the much anticipated third SPAC and will be listed on July 31.
Its retail portion has been six times oversubscribed. It will be raising RM550mil from its listing proceeds.
Sona Petroleum has expressed interest in smaller fields in shallow waters of not more than 120m in depth. It will prioritise assets that are producing quickly before venturing into earlier-stage wells.
Shahul Hamid of the Daya Group of companies has also expressed interest in starting his own oil and gas SPAC, where it will look to buy into a development or production asset as its first qualified acquisition.
Hence it would appear that apart from Hibiscus, most oil and gas SPACs are now targeting assets in the development and production cycle, rather than the exploration cycle.