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The Malay Mail Money Online - Reach Energy's IPO Attracts World's Biggest Wealth Fund Among Investors
KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — Malaysia’s Reach Energy Bhd has attracted investors including Norway’s US$890 billion sovereign wealth fund in an initial public offering to fund its acquisitions of oil and gas fields.
Norges Bank Investment Management, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, is among cornerstone buyers in the RM750 million (US$237 million) IPO of Reach Energy, Managing Director Shahul Hamid Mohd Ismail said in a July 21 interview.
State-run funds Koperasi Permodalan Felda Malaysia Bhd and Lembaga Tabung Haji are also buying stakes in the so-called special-purpose acquisition company, Shahul said.
Rising energy demand is spurring companies such as Reach Energy to acquire and develop smaller oil and gas fields ignored by their larger international counterparts. Malaysia’s Sona Petroleum Bhd, also a special-purpose acquisition company, finalised an agreement this week to buy a stake in two Thai oil and gas blocks of UK-based Salamander Energy Ltd.
“The No. 1 and single immediate plan is to get our qualified acquisition,” said Shahul, 64, a former Royal Dutch Shell Plc executive who had managed exploration and production assets in Brunei and the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. “With the confidence of these institutions, this paves the way for us to grow the business.”
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