PTTEP Shareholders Approve Share Sale, Thailand

PTT Exploration and Production Public Company (PTTEP) said that its shareholders have approved PTTEP’s capital increase via a preferential public offering whereby up to 650,000,000 new shares will be offered and allocated on a preferential basis to eligible existing shareholders.

Eligible shareholders whose names appear in the share register book as of November 12, 2012 (Record Date) will be entitled to subscribe for new shares in accordance to their shareholding. The last day on which investors may purchase PTTEP’s ordinary shares on the exchange and still be entitled to subscribe for new ordinary shares is November 7, 2012. All new shares will be offered in one tranche to all eligible existing shareholders.

The final offering price will be the same for all subscribers and will be determined via a bookbuilding method. PTT, as the majority shareholder of PTTEP, will not participate in the bookbuilding, but will fully support PTTEP by subscribing for the new shares in order to maintain its current shareholding.

The final offering price will be publicly announced ahead of the subscription period, along with the subscription ratio and the final number of shares to be offered. Eligible shareholders can confirm the number of shares they are entitled to through various channels, which will be announced at a later date. Allocation will be made in three steps as follows:

• In the first step, new shares will be allocated to subscribing shareholders pro-rata to their shareholding. Eligible shareholders as of the Record Date who fully subscribe to their entitlement will maintain their shareholding after the completion of the offering.
• In the second step, any unsubscribed shares following the first step will be allocated to eligible shareholders who subscribe over their entitlement in one further round of allocations pro-rata to their shareholding.
• In the third step, any remaining shares from the second step will be allocated to demand from institutional investors who participate in the bookbuilding process.

Mr. Tevin Vongvanich, President and Chief Executive Officer of PTTEP, said “PTTEP received great support from our shareholders for the capital increase plan. With the proposed allocation structure, eligible shareholders can maintain their shareholding by subscribing to their entitlement or increase their shareholding by subscribing over their entitlement.

“The Company will provide further details regarding subscription schedule, offering price and entitlement ratio to our shareholders at later dates. We aim to complete the transaction within this year. We expect the offering to enhance our financial strength and flexibility and we will continue to pursue our goal of sustainable growth and attractive return for shareholders as well as securing Thailand’s energy security.

“Under our capital increase plan, all newly issued shares will be offered and allocated to eligible shareholders on equal terms and there will be no special allocation to any particular shareholder. In the case that there are remaining shares from allocation to eligible shareholders, PTTEP will allocate them to institutional investors who participate in the bookbuilding process.

“PTTEP would like to thank our shareholders who participated in the shareholders’ meeting today and showed their support for the Company’s capital increase plan by approving the Public Offering, with more than 99.96 percent approving the capital increase. The Company will manage the proceeds from the Public Offering to achieve our objectives,” Mr. Tevin Vongvanich concluded.

PTTEP will submit the offering prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the first week of November 2012. Upon approval from the SEC, PTTEP will commence the Offering to eligible shareholders. Interested shareholders can obtain more information about the offering from the prospectus.

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LNG World News Staff, October 30, 2012