Fosun closes Roc Oil acquisition and completes entry into oil and gas sector

Submitted by Paddy Harris on Mon, 2014-11-17 10:38

17th November 2014

Fosun International has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Transcendent Resources has closed the acquisition of Roc Oil Company last Friday, one of Australia's leading independent upstream oil and gas companies, by acquiring 92.6 per cent of Roc’s outstanding share capital.

Fosun closes Roc Oil acquisition and completes entry into oil and gas sector

China’s production accounts for 72 per cent of Roc’s total production

“Fosun has strong industrial operational experience in mining and energy sectors,” said Guo Guangchang, Fosun International’s chairman.

“After completion of the acquisition, leveraging its expertise in industrial operations, Fosun plans to support and grow Roc’s operations through further integration of its upstream oil production resources into the energy industry supply chain”.

Roc is a leading Australian independent upstream oil and gas exploration, development and production company with a significant presence and experienced management team in China, Malaysia, Australia and UK’s North Sea regions.

China’s production accounts for 72 per cent of Roc’s total production.

Roc’s current oil and natural gas assets include a portfolio of exploration and development assets.

Producing fields include China’s Bohai Bay Z oilfield, South China Sea’s K oilfield, Malaysia’s PSC oilfield, UK’s North Sea B&E oilfield and Australia’s H oilfield; fields under exploration and appraisal include Malaysia’s RSC project, China’s Bohai Bay field. Last but not least, South Sea’s eighth east oilfield and Myanmar’s offshore oilfield.

Roc has proven and probable reserves of 17.4 million barrels of crude oil. In 2013, Roc produced 7,263 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with annual revenue of USD 251m and gross profit of USD 96m.

“It is exciting to be part of Fosun’s strategic entry into the oil and gas industry. With the support from Fosun and Roc’s industry expertise, we look forward to building a leading oil and gas business platform.” said Roc’s chief executive officer, Alan Linn.

On November 13, Zhao Bin, president of Fosun Energy Group, was elected by Roc's board of directors to be the chairman of the board. On November 10, Yuanlin Jiang, Yao Xu and Qunbin Wang were appointed as non-executive directors of Roc.

With the takeover having been completed, Fosun now plans to conduct a comprehensive strategic review of Roc’s operations. Subject to the outcome of this review, the current management team of Roc is expected to be retained and the Roc brand will be kept for continuing operations.