Hibiscus shares and warrants end in negative territory

Published: Saturday December 21, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Saturday December 21, 2013 MYT 9:59:01 AM
Hibiscus shares and warrants end in negative territory

PETALING JAYA: Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, the first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to list on Bursa Malaysia, saw its shares fall by some 27.84% throughout this week for reasons yet unknown.

Hibiscus shares closed at RM1.84 yesterday compared with RM2.55 at the beginning of the week.

Its warrants also fell by 29 sen to close at RM1.32 (or a weekly loss of 34.33%).

To both retailers and investors on the road, Hibiscus shares had however been enjoying a strong run year to-date, surging from just RM1.55 to an all-time high of RM2.68 on Dec 13.

The company had recently announced that it had secured production licences in Norway and Australia.

It clinched a production licence for the West Seahorse oil field in the offshore Gippsland Basin of Victoria, Australia, while its jointly controlled entity, Lime Petroleum Norway AS, signed an additional agreement with North Energy ASA to acquire a 20% stake in a new licence in Norway which was pending regulatory approval.

A notable development on SPACs this week was that the Securities Commission (SC) had tweaked the rules relating to new SPACs that wish to get listed.

Among other moves, the SC extended the moratorium on promoters and initial investors as well as capping the discounts these investors enjoy in their SPAC shares.

Some observers reckoned that this could lead to investors selling down from listed SPACs to put their money into the new SPACs that come onstream due to the increased investor protection that they will enjoy following these new rules.