Australia’s Linc Energy plans Singapore stock listing

Brisbane-based Linc Energy said on October 2 that it is planning to switch share market listings to Singapore from Australia by December in order to tap the growing Asian demand for oil and gas resources.
Linc has struggled to commercialize its technologies for producing synthetic gas from coal, and then producing diesel and jet fuel from that gas. It also produces oil in the United States and is looking to utilize shale resources in Australia.
The company will seek shareholder approval next month to drop its listing in Sydney and request regulatory permission to trade in Singapore, in a bid to attract investors and boost its value. It will keep its headquarters in Australia.
Listing on the Singapore Exchange “will help unlock the value” of the company’s oil, gas, and coal assets, the company said.
The company, which is in talks with two or three potential cornerstone investors as part of the proposed listing, wants to tap rising demand for energy shares, CEO Peter Bond said.
“Singapore is becoming an energy hub of Asia,” he said. “(It is) starved of energy-company opportunity.”
Bond added that Linc has not decided how much money it intends to raise in a share sale.
(October 3, 2013)