PETALING JAYA: Tycoon T Ananda Krishnan has finally taken steps to list his shipping company Bumi Armada Bhd, which will possibly raise about US$1bil from its initial public offering (IPO), according to some reports.
The latest development came after it was first rumoured three years ago that Bumi Armada would be listed.
Details have emerged that the company would be listed on Bursa Malaysia's Main Market.
According to its draft prospectus, the listing exercise includes offering a public issue of 644.3 million new ordinary shares and offer for sales of up to 234.3 million ordinary shares of 20 sen each. The draft prospectus on the Securities Commission's website showed that CIMB Investment Bank, Maybank Investment Bank and RHB Investment Bank are the company's joint principal advisers for the IPO.
The listing of the company has come after Ananda privatised three companies last year, namely Measat Global Bhd, Tanjung plc and Astro All Asia Networks plc.
Bumi Armada is a Malaysia-based international offshore services provider to the oil and gas (O&G) industry in Malaysia and over 10 other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The company provides its services through owning and operating O&G marine assets across the sector's value chain from exploration through field development and construction, production and operations and eventually, decommissioning.
For the year ended Dec 31, 2010, it achieved profit after tax of RM351mil and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of RM714mil. Revenue was recorded at RM1.24bil. About 84.8% of its revenue for the year ended Dec 31, 2010 was derived from outside of Malaysia. Its audited consolidated net assets as at Dec 31, 2010 was RM874.5mil or RM13.89 per ordinary share of RM1 each.
Since as far back as 2005, the market had heard sporadic rumours that Ananda would float the profitable Bumi Armada. He had taken it private in 2003. The listing of Bumi Armada could also be driven by the company's own capital expenditure needs.
Bumi Armada's attraction to investors is its forte in operating FPSOs or floating, production, storage and offloading vessels, which are mainly used to extract oil and gas from deepwater and smaller, harder-to-reach fields. High crude oil prices have spurred these types of exploration and production activities all around the world. Analysts have noted that Bumi Armada is expanding quite well into markets in Africa, India, Mexico and South-East Asia.
Source: Star online
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