Frontier Oil seeks OK of P2.2B IPO

MANILA, Philippines—Frontier Oil Corp. is seeking government approval of an initial public offering worth as much as P2.2 billion, which will be used to fund drilling campaigns.

Based on a preliminary prospectus filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Frontier Oil plans to sell as much as 883.626 million common shares at a maximum price per share of P2.50. This will bring to public hands about a third of its outstanding shares after its IPO.

Philippine Commercial Capital Inc. and Unicapital Inc. were tapped to arrange the stock debut.

Frontier Oil is also seeking authority to list its shares on the first or main board of the Philippine Stock Exchange under the ticker “FOC.”

The prospectus said Frontier Oil was holding interests and/or rights to interests in four of the 26 active exploration service contracts (SCs) currently in place with the Department of Energy, of which the two most mature or “production-ready” are the Nassipping Field in SC 52 and the Calauit Field in SC 50.

“It is both Service Contract 50 and 52 that set Frontier Oil apart from its peers and will provide the platform for the company’s continuing growth and success. Frontier’s focus is now finalizing these two drilling campaigns, which seek to determine the commerciality of both Calauit and Nassipping,” the prospectus said.

The biggest shareholders of Frontier Oil are Panther Petroleum Ltd. (21.85 percent); BioProspect Ltd. (18.02 percent), Middle Petroleum Services Ltd. (9.28 percent), Phil Resource Invest Pte Ltd. (7.77 percent), Aytek Co. Inc. (7.35 percent) and Frontier Investment Ltd. (6.46 percent).