PNOC-EC plans to reissue shares

Publicly-listed PNOC-Exploration Corp. is planning to re-issue its shares in the country’s stock market, Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez said.

PNOC-EC is an oil and gas exploration subsidiary of state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC). The company’s shares were listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange in 1976. But the issue is not actively traded. Some 99.8 percent of PNOC-EC is owned by PNOC, the remaining shares are held by the public.

Perez, who is also the PNOC chairman, said the PNOC board has given authority to PNOC-EC to undertake a privatization.

But he said the board has yet to decide what kind of privatization scheme to pursue since there are at least three options being considered.

One is for the privatization of the company itself or its stake in Malampaya.

Another is re-listing the shares of PNOC-EC in the stock market.

"This means that we will re-issue and do another public offering of PNOC-EC shares. The company is listed in the PSE but only less than two percent of the shares are owned by the public," he said.

A third option is to list only the Malampaya stake of PNOC-EC. The company currently holds a 10-percent (around $300 million) stake in the $4.5-billion Malampaya Deep Water to Gas Project in Northern Palawan. This is the single largest natural gas project in the country today. The other proponents of the project include: Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. and Texaco of US which own 45 percent equity each.

The energy chief said they are also considering as option the combination of selling PNOC-EC as company and its shares in the Malampaya project.

"We have not made any decision yet that’s why we are now going through a selection process for the privatization advisor for EC. They are looking for qualified financial institutions who have history in oil and gas, history in privatizing companies like this and third who do not have a conflict of interest.

He said this means that Credit Suisse First Boston and R.M. Rothschild and Sons are disqualified for becoming privatization for PNOC-EC. These two international financial management groups are already handling the sale of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) transmission and generation assets.