OSH performance at POMSox remains strong despite Arab takeover hype

The recent hype about fears of Oil Search Limited (OSH), a PNG based resource company being taken over by Arab overseas interest had no major impact on the performance of company’s ordinary shares at Port Moresby Stock Exchange (POMSox).

The managing director of Oil Search, Peter Botten, in a teleconference hosted in Brisbane, responded to a question raised by this paper that share performance at POMSox was not affected by the speculations.

“POMSox being a small market, there was not much difference in the share performance as compared to ASX (Australian Stock exchange)” Mr Botten said.

Oil Search on Tuesday, 25 February 2014 requested POMSox for an immediate halt in trading of its ordinary shares.

The request for a trading halt was made to allow Oil Search maintain orderly market in its shares prior to release of a major announcement which Mr Botten made on Thursday 27, February 2014. 

As a result, OSH’s share price at POMSox since Tuesday remained at K17.53 till Thursday.

The trading halt is believed to have prevented volatility in trading which could have happen if trading continued with the market speculating outcomes of the announcements which Mr Botten made on Thursday.

Another key announcement made was the acquisition of 22.835% gross interest in PRL 14, containing the Elk/Antelope gas discoveries, through the acquisition of the Pac Group for US$900 million.

The acquisition is believed to further improve the performance OSH’s share price in both POMSox and ASX.