Eastern Petroleum resets IPO

MANILA, Philippines - Eastern Petroleum Corp. is moving its plan to list in the local bourse to a later date next year, its top official told The STAR.

Eastern Petroleum president Fernando Martinez said the company will hold an initial public offering (IPO) by the fourth quarter of 2015 instead of earlier plans to conduct it before the first half of next year.

“Our IPO will be more in the energy (power) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) business by late 2015,” he said.

Eastern Petroleum, a homegrown oil firm with a market share of 0.7 percent as of end-2013, has slowly been shunning away from its oil retail operations since venturing into the household LPG business last year.   

“We don’t have the amount we want to raise yet as we’re still completing the list of projects we will help finance with the IPO proceeds,” Martinez said.

He earlier told reporters that the firm eyes to raise about $50 million through listing in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) which it would use to fund the company’s power generation projects.

But with Eastern Petroleum’s business focus slowly shifting to LPG, Martinez said proceeds of next year’s IPO may include expansion of its LPG business as well.

Eastern Petroleum is currently developing a 20-megawatt biomass power plant in Agusan del Sur.

The independent oil player also has 40 gasoline stations to date.

Aside from its power generation projects and fuel retail network, Eastern Petroleum has ventured into the household LPG market with the introduction of its explosion proof LPG cylinders under the EC Gas brand in September last year.

Martinez said the company plans to open 500 retail outlets this year and another 500 next year for EC Gas, bulk of 80 percent of which will be situated in Luzon. EC Gas is the country’s first explosion – proof LPG brand.

Supplied by Norway-based Hexagon Ragasco AS, the LPG cylinders are made from composite materials which are up to 10 kilograms lighter compared to the average weight of LPG made from steel.