Ekuinas acquires Malaysian shipping services provider
Ekuinas, the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, has completed a MYR220.9 million ($72.3 million) buyout of OMNI Petromaritime, a company that provides offshore support vessels to the oil and gas industry. Ekuinas acquired an 82.5% stake in OMNI for MYR150.9 million and injected MYR70 million of additional capital to pay down debt and support expansion plans.
OMNI is one of Malaysia's largest fleet owners with 12 owned and managed vessels. Its clients include Petronas, Saudi Aramco, Maersk Oil Qatar and Petrovietnam. The company recorded net profit of MYR20 million against revenues of MYR104 million in 2011, up from MYR8 million and MYR23 million, respectively, in 2008.
"We are pleased to be able to invest in OMNI, a Malaysian OSV company that has demonstrated a strong track record of revenue and earnings growth," Raja Tan Sri Dato' Seri Arshad Bin Raja Tun Uda, chairman of Ekuinas, said in a statement. "This investment will also strongly position Ekuinas to tap into the expected strong growth in the industry, driven by increased domestic and international oil and gas E&P activity."
The offshore support vessel industry is expected to grow rapidly, with Malaysia announcing plans to spend MYR300 billion on exploration and production between 2011 and 2015. However, the industry is highly fragmented, with 70% of participants owning fewer than 10 vessels each.
Earlier this year Ekuinas acquired the 76% of Tanjung Offshore's marine vessel services arm that it didn't already own for MYR220 million. The asset, Tanjung Kapal Services (TKS), operates 16 offshore vessels and has two platform supply vessels currently on order.
Another shipping services provider, Singapore-headquartered Miclyn Express Offshore (MEO), has also attracted interest from private equity investors. This month CHAMP Private Equity acquired a 33.2% stake in business for A$199 million ($206 million), following Headland Capital Partners, which paid $141 million for 26.4% of MEO last September.
Ekuinas was set up in 2009 with initial capital of MYR500 million. It received a further MYR600 million from the Malaysian government last year.
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