re: Ann: LNC to Seek Listing on the Singapore... Thats what I...

re: Ann: LNC to Seek Listing on the Singapore... Thats what I meant Radish. I may not have written it too well.

Anyway I found this which I believe pretty well sums up the situation as we know it.


http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/10/3/dataroom/dataroom-am-linc-lost

As Linc Energy prepares to buy a shuttered Rio Tinto coal mine, the company has shocked the market with a decision to abandon the ASX in preference for a listing in Singapore. It’s bold, but is it wise? Elsewhere, another ANZ play for a Hong Kong bank appears set to come to nothing, Westpac remains in front in the pursuit for Lloyds’ Australian assets and the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter board gets a boost in its attempts to shun suitor Bega.

Linc Energy appears done with the Australian sharemarket, yesterday announcing plans to delist from the ASX and float on the Singapore Exchange instead. Before then it will be acquiring coal mining assets in Queensland.

Officially those assets won’t be revealed until a trading halt is lifted either today or tomorrow, but various media reports have spotlighted Rio Tinto’s Blair Athol as the asset in question. The 30-year-old mine has been closed since November as Rio hunted for a buyer though could be brought back online within two months, according to the Wall Street Journal. The likely value of the deal is not known.

The news is a bit of a surprise given Linc has shown a desire to sell coal tenements rather than buy. Perhaps a bigger shock, however, is the move to Singapore to “improve access to capital markets and reposition the business to deliver its long-term growth strategy”.

“As Asian economies continue to grow, demand for energy is expected to increase faster than anywhere else in the world and gas is destined to fulfill an increasing proportion of the region’s energy needs,” chief executive Peter Bond said.

“Listing on the SGX will improve our access to international capital markets and enable us to exploit this opportunity.”

It is a bold shift and one that on the surface makes little sense given the ASX is much bigger than the Singapore Exchange. Also, Asian investors are very comfortable with Australian stocks and given the firm’s headquarters are actually going to stay in Brisbane, the decision is a little baffling.

According to the Australian Financial Review, the reasoning behind the step is largely Bond’s belief the company is undervalued in Australia for being diversified and he thinks its true worth is around $6 to $8 a share. The report also indicated Bond would consider breaking up the company’s assets to further reap value, though there is nothing stopping him doing that here. Linc, which at one point in 2008 crossed the $5 mark, now trades at $1.26 meaning if Bond is correct, it is well short of its real value.

Investors weren’t particularly excited by the news yesterday, sending the company’s stock down 10 per cent before a trading halt was put in place pending the coal announcement.

A shareholder vote on the delisting proposal will be carried out on November 6 during an Extraordinary General Meeting.