KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 5): The proposed privatisation of Yinson Holdings Bhd (KL:YINSON) is “a shareholder matter” with no immediate impact on Yinson Production Ltd (YPL), which is the offshore floating asset arm of Yinson.
MISC Bhd (KL:MISC), which is 51%-owned by Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PETRONAS), the Employees Provident Fund and the founding family of Yinson are exploring taking the group private at a time when YPL is pursuing opportunities in the floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) vessel market.
“It's a shareholder matter that doesn't affect our strategy,” said YPL chief executive officer Flemming Guiducci Grønnegaard at a media briefing.
“So in many ways, it has no immediate effect on our activities, on our projects.”
PETRONAS, a major LNG player, has two FLNGs in operation and another under construction – making it one of few owners of the specialised vessels, which number less than 10 globally.
YPL, which revealed plans to go into FLNG a few months back amid client demand, has begun recruiting a specialist FLNG team including conceptual design professionals.
The group operates eight floating production storage offloading (FPSO) vessels and three FSOs in Brazil, Africa, and Southeast Asia, including FPSO Helang for ENEOS offshore Sarawak.
In August, Yinson Holdings said its substantial shareholders, namely the Lim family (27.68%) and the EPF (17.09%), are in talks with MISC to take the company private at an indicative price of RM2.35 per share.
According to reports, the three parties may submit an offer of about RM2.50 per share, valuing the group at RM7.3 billion.
Yinson shares settled at RM2.27 on Thursday. An announcement on the privatisation could be made as soon as Friday, sources said.
Yinson Holdings also has a renewable energy arm with over 500MW of generation capacity across India and Peru. It also owns a green technology arm, which, among others, operates an electric vehicle charging network in Malaysia and Singapore.