Trans-Asia Pet to list by way of introduction

MANILA, Philippines - The petroleum exploration unit of Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. is set to list in the local bourse.

In a regulatory filing, Trans-Asia said it secured the approval of the Philippine Stock Exchange’s board of directors to list Trans-Asia Petroleum Corp. (TA Petroleum).

TA Petroleum is a subsidiary of the Phinma Group’s Trans-Asia.

TA Petroleum will list by way of introduction 250 million common shares with a par value of P1 in the main board of the PSE. At an initial listing price of P4.60 per share, the oil exploration firm will have a market capitalization of P1.15 billion.

Listing by way of introduction allows companies to enter the stock market without immediately having to sell shares to the public. In January, Top Frontier Investment Holdings Inc., the majority shareholder of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp., listed through this route.

In August 2012, Trans-Asia Oil approved the declaration of 123.161 million common shares in the oil exploration company as property dividend to existing shareholders. This entitled Trans-Asia Oil shareholders to 2.55 TA Petroleum shares for every 100 Trans Asia Oil shares they owned.

In 2011, Philex Petroleum Corp. went public after its parent firm Philex Mining Corp. distributed the petroleum firm’s shares as a property dividend. Philex Petroleum’s subsidiary Forum Energy Plc owns a 70-percent stake in the resource-rich, 8,800-square-kilometer Service Contract 72 in Northwest Palawan.

The listing formalizes the separation of Trans-Asia’s power generation and oil exploration businesses. Trans-Asia earlier assigned to TA Petroleum its shares in several oil exploration projects such as SC 6 Block A in offshore northwest Palawan, SC 51 in Northwest Leyte and SC 69 in the Camotes Sea.