KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 23): In the face of a slew of winding-up petitions against its units, integrated oil and gas services provider Sapura Energy Bhd's share price slumped to a record low of 3.5 sen in morning trade on Wednesday (Feb 23), before closing unchanged at four sen. Some 26.53 million shares were traded.

In a filing on Wednesday, Sapura Energy said its wholly-owned subsidiaries Sapura Fabrication Sdn Bhd and Sapura Pinewell Sdn Bhd were served winding-up petitions on Feb 18 and Feb 17 respectively.

Sapura Fabrication was served a winding-up petition by Astro Offshore Pte Ltd on the basis of non-payment of invoices and credit notes amounting to RM884,229 under two Time Charterparty agreements.

Sapura Pinewell received a winding-up petition taken out by MMA Offshore Malaysia Sdn Bhd in relation to the non-payment of RM2.19 million under a Time Charterparty for offshore service vessels agreement.

The group noted that both of the subsidiaries are not major subsidiaries as defined under Chapter 1 of the Main Market Listing Requirements.

"The company and its subsidiaries are negotiating with the respective petitioners and have engaged legal counsel for advice as to the amicable resolution of these matters.

"Pending the outcome of negotiations and receipt of such legal advice, there will be no immediate financial and operational impacts and no expected losses to the group arising from the petitions," it added.

A week prior, Sapura Energy said that five of its wholly-owned subsidiaries — including the aforementioned Sapura Fabrication and Sapura Pinewell — had been slapped with 10 winding-up petitions from eight vendors.

The winding-up petitions were in relation to its units owing the vendors some RM47.5 million for supply of materials, products and services, as well as crane rental and vessel chartering.