UMW may reapply for O&G unit listing

UMW may reapply for O&G unit listing
By Francis Fernandez
Published: 2009/09/09

The assembler of Toyota Motor Corp cars in Malaysia will likely submit a fresh IPO application to the Securities Commission by end-month

UMW Holdings Bhd (4588), the assembler of Toyota Motor Corp cars in Malaysia, will likely submit a fresh initial public offer application to the Securities Commission (SC) by month-end to list its oil and gas (O&G) subsidiary, TA Research said in a report yesterday.

The research house, which held discussions with the UMW management recently, said that the group has to update and make several key amendments to the new application in tandem with the changes seen in the group's O&G division over the past year.

UMW, which started its oil and gas business in 2002 currently has projects in 12 countries including Singapore, Thailand, China, Indonesia and the Middle East.

For the year ended December 31 2008, UMW's O&G division posted RM754.66 million revenue, making the third largest contributor to the group revenue, which was dominated by the automotive division, raking in sales of RM10.03 billion.
UMW have been looking to raise as much as RM425 million by selling shares of its O&G unit to the public. It had announced the listing plans in February last year, but stalled on the floatation plan due to weak market conditions.

"The exercise has since been postponed twice, with the second extension from the SC valid till September 30 2009. Although UMW now has less than 30 days to list its O&G unit, the group has not provided investors with any new updates on the status of the listing," TA said in the report.

It speculates that UMW could bid its time, and possibly list the O&G unit by as early as the second half of next year, when market conditions are expected to be much better than now.


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