The stock was the third-most active counter with around 4.13 million shares traded at 10.33am.
Amid talks of the group’s possible merger with Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd (MHB), a unit of Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), Sapura Energy has made several appointments from entities related to the latter.
Last Friday, Sapura Energy announced that former MHB managing director and CEO, Wan Mashitah, had joined the board as an independent and non-executive director.
In their filing, the group highlighted her experience as CEO of E&P Operations and Maintenance Services Sdn Bhd from Mar 31, 2022 to Sep 30, 2022, during which she “helped to (transition) the company from a wholly owned subsidiary of Petronas to a privately owned company”.
Additionally, Sapura Energy announced that Nur Iskandar Samad, a Petronas veteran, was appointed as an independent and non-executive director.
Iskandar held several senior managerial positions with Petronas during his 41 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, including CEO of Petronas Fertiliser (Kedah) Sdn Bhd and senior general manager of the group’s human resource management department.
It was previously reported that the majority shareholders of Sapura Energy and MHB, namely Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) and Petronas respectively, are “mulling” merging the two oil and gas (O&G) services providers but stressed the discussions are still at “an early stage”, according to sources who spoke with The Edge.
PNB is the single largest shareholder in Sapura Energy with a 40% stake, while MHB is a 65.5% subsidiary of MISC Bhd, which is in turn 51%-owned by Petronas.
Included in the proposed restructuring plan for the Practice Note 17 (PN17) company is the emergence of a potential white knight, among several other proposals.
On Feb 15, 2023, the company disclosed that it has received financial assistance from a white knight amounting to RM1.8 billion in capital injection.
Following this, the company filed a new proposal to restructure its RM10.3 billion debt owed to nine lenders grouped under financiers of its multi-currency facilities (MCF). The group owes another RM5.12 billion to its vendors.
The High Court also granted Sapura Energy and its 22 subsidiaries a three-month extension from March 11 to stall legal action by a large number of creditors.
This was to allow the group to engage with creditors in their debt restructuring efforts without being distracted by threat of legal proceedings.
Sapura Energy’s biggest lender is Maybank, in which PNB also has a 44.29% stake.
A source said the major shareholders of both companies are still in the process of appointing lawyers for the potential merger, so it is hard to gauge if the proposed merger will even be successful.
“There are also parties that disagree with the corporate exercise (the merger), and these parties are in a position of power as well. So, it could go either way,” the source added.
Petronas, in a press release today, has dismissed the speculation of a merger between its subsidiary MHB and Sapura Energy.
“Petronas wishes to categorically deny these speculations. Any investment or divestment consideration within the Petronas Group has always been and will continue to be strictly guided by a board-approved and management-enforced framework,” the statement said.
At 10.47am, Sapura Energy’s shares were flat at 3.5 sen, giving it a market capitalisation of RM489.36 million.