Shares of restructured Titan Petrochemicals dive as trading resumes after a 4-year halt

Shares of debt-troubled petroleum fuel storage and logistics firm Titan Petrochemicals dived as trading resumed following four years of suspension, after it escaped liquidation upon restructuring over US$400 million of debt and clinching Singaporean oil rig giant Keppel as its business partner.

The Fujian-based firm, controlled by fuel and metals trader Guangdong Zhenrong Energy (GZE) – a unit of state-owned commodities trader Zhuhai Zhenrong – will resume its vessel building and maintenance business and diversify into oil rig production and offshore engineering, by cooperating with Keppel, the world’s largest drilling rig maker by market share.

“The board is pleased to announce that the winding up petition has been withdrawn and the joint and several provisional liquidators have been discharged at midnight on [Thursday],” Titan said in a statement on Friday.

Withdrawal of the petition, completion of various debt restructuring agreements, various shares subscription deals and an internal control review indicating no material deficiency are among the conditions for trading to resume.

After completion of a one share-for-every three existing shares open offer at 10 HK cents a share that raised some HK$259 million, the company is now 64.7 per cent owned by GZE.

Titan shares traded at 9.8 HK cents at 10:56am, slightly below the open offer price, and 53.3 per cent below the last trading price of 21 cents before trading was halted in June 2012 pending the restructuring.