PDZ Maju at Northport terminal.
KUALA LUMPUR: PDZ Holdings Bhd
appears to be rethinking its plan to venture into the downstream oil and gas business, as it aborted on Tuesday the exercise aimed at raising funds for its proposed billion-ringgit liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) project.
In a filing with the stock exchange, the container shipping firm said it had withdrawn its Oct 7 application to Bursa Malaysia Securities for a six-month extension to complete the implementation of several proposals.
These include a proposed special issue, proposed rights issue with warrants and proposed issuance of redeemable convertible preference shares (RCPS).
The previous deadline given by Bursa Securities was Oct 23, which means that the deadline has lapsed following the revocation of PDZ’s application for a further extension to April 22, 2017.
PDZ’s move came a day after its biggest shareholder, Pelaburan Mara Bhd, called for an EGM seeking to remove Aminuddin Yusof Lana as PDZ director and to appoint new auditors.
No reason was given for the proposed resolutions, and PDZ also did not give any reason for cancelling the fund-raising exercise. PDZ shareholders had previously approved at an EGM the proposed diversification into oil and gas as well as the fund-raising exercise for it.
PDZ has inked a gas supply agreement with Ken Makmur Holdings Sdn Bhd, which will deliver the gas to it for processing and delivery of methane and ethane components to a methanol plant. PDZ would pay Ken Makmur US$205mil (RM890mil) in both cash and RCPS, and it will have to build the LPG plant at its own expense, estimated at RM268mil.
Aminuddin -- the director whom Pelaburan Mara seeks to remove -- goes a long way back with Tan Sri Halim Saad, the biggest shareholder of Sumatec Resources Bhd, a company that would supply Ken Makmur with natural gas from the Rakushechnoye oil and gas field in Kazakhstan.
Aminuddin, 68, has held directorship roles at public-listed companies linked to Tan Sri Halim Saad.
PDZ had planned to use most of the proceeds from the proposed rights issue with warrants and proposed special issue to pay Ken Makmur and for the construction of the LPG production plant along with gas supply pipeline. The proposed issuance of 1.56 billion RCPS, meanwhile, was as part payment to Ken Makmur besides US$125mil (RM542.7mil) in cash.
If the deal with Ken Makmur were aborted, it would be PDZ’s second proposed deal to fall through in about two years. In September 2014 PDZ had terminated -- after three deadline extensions -- a conditional share acquisition agreement to buy 20% equity interest in Efogen Sdn Bhd, which charters vessels for oil and gas offshore support services.
Pelaburan Mara emerged as a substantial shareholder in PDZ in April 2014 by acquiring 26.83% equity interest. Today it holds 23.29% in PDZ.
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