KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's Sona Energy plans to raise more than 500 million ringgit ($159.62 million) in an initial public share offering, making it the biggest special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to be listed so far in the southeast Asian country.
Sona Energy said in a statement on Friday it would offer 1.1 billion ordinary shares at an issue price of 0.50 ringgit per share. Each share will be issued with a free detachable warrant.
The oil and gas company did not give a specific date for its debut on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange, but said the Securities Commission had approved the IPO.
SPACs like Sona Energy are known as blank cheque IPOs as the firms raise money through the stock exchange without a single asset other than a plan to buy assets or other firms that will be injected into the entity.
In this case, Sona will look to buy oil and gas production assets in southeast Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa, the company said. After the acquisitions, the firm said, it will operate as an independent exploration and production company.
Sona Energy's listing follows an April IPO by another oil and gas firm, Cliq Energy, which raised about $120 million.
Another two are going for IPOs as political risk ebbs after May elections, opening up the deal pipeline for 2013. In 2012, Malaysia had a record year for IPOs with the listing of plantation operator Felda Global and hospital operator IHH Healthcare.
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