Stock-in-News SapuraKencana falls 1.3% after Seadrill share sale but Ambank stays positive

by **Cals** Fri 11 Apr 2014, 01:29

Stock-in-News SapuraKencana falls 1.3% after Seadrill share sale but Ambank stays positive

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Ahmad Naqib Idris Adzman Shah of theedgemalaysia.com

Thursday, 10 April 2014 16:31

KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 10): Shares of SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd fell today after news that its second largest shareholder Seadrill Ltd had sold down its stake in the company.
At 4.16 pm, SapuraKencana fell 6 sen or 1.3% to RM4.39, with some 4.1 million shares change hands. It was the 26^th loser on the exchange.
Seadrill Ltd has sold 230 million shares representing about 4% in SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd for some US$300 million (RM966.4 million).
After the sale, Seadrill’s stake will be reduced to 8% from 12%, making it the fourth largest shareholder in SapuraKencana after Sapura Holdings (16.8%), EPF (11.7%) and Khasera Baru (10%).
But AmResearch has maintained its positive outlook on SapuraKencana, despite this share sale.
“The change in shareholder levels does not affect our positive outlook on SapuraKencana’s prospects, given the group’s game-changing and earnings-transforming US$898mil (RM2.8bil) acquisition of Newfield International’s oil & gas production blocks in Peninsula Malaysia, Sabah & Sarawak,” said the research house.
AmResearch said that if Seadrill were to eventually dispose its entire stake in the company, it will be done gradually as the two companies are engaged in joint ventures in six pipe-laying flexible support vessels worth US$300 million each.
Seadrill’s chairman John Fredriksen has stated the company will continue to be a long-term strategic investor in SapuraKencana.
“We are today working together on several new businesses with the target of creating new growth opportunities supported by long-term contracts. Our support for one of our closest partners is unwavering and we look forward to many years of future cooperation,” Fredriksen said in a statement.
Seadrill had also signed a lock-up agreement for the remaining 430 million shares it owns in SapuraKencana until the end of this year.
AmResearch has maintained its “buy” call on SapuraKencana at RM4.45, with an unchanged fair value of RM5.70 per share.