Wednesday, September 29, 2010

BVI holding company provides update to its arrangement with Afren plc

British Virgin Islands-domiciled exploration company Black Marlin Energy Holdings Limited has announced that on September 21, 2010 it received the approval of the majority of Afren shareholders for the proposed acquisition of Black Marlin by Afren. Earlier this year, the BVI holding entered into a definitive agreement with Afren plc, providing for this acquisition. Upon completion of the arrangement, Black Marlin is to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Afren, pursuant to a scheme of arrangement under the law of the British Virgin Islands.

Black Marlin also provided an update to the Arrangement to the shareholders of the BVI company.

The final court hearing to approve the arrangement is expected to be held on October 6, 2010, and the arrangement is expected to take effect from October 8, 2010. On the effective date, the shares of the Black Marlin Energy will be delisted from the TSXV. In addition, Black Marlin intends to close the register of shareholders maintained by Olympia Trust Company after close of business on the business day prior to the effective date.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

BVI-registered company acquires 9.7 percent of Bank of Cyprus

On September 21, Bank of Cyprus announced that British Virgin Islands-registered company Odella Resources had raised its stake in the bank to 9.7 percent, by acquiring shares from the bank's employee pension funds and on the market. The BVI company had acquired 7.50 percent of the bank at 4.90 euro per share from the bank's employee pension funds, and the rest amount of shares on the Athens and Cyprus stock exchanges at an average price of 4.07 euro per share.

According to the statement of the Bank of Cyprus, BVI-registered Odella Resources is owned by a Cypriot trust with foreign interests. The new shareholders who have no other banking-related interest have expressed their confidence in the prospects of the bank, which is actually the largest in Cyprus, with presence in Greece and expanding presence in eastern Europe and Russia.

After Tuesday's transaction with Odella Resources, the bank's employee provident funds had reduced their shareholding from 7.6 percent to 0.1 percent.

The Bank of Cyprus also had been notified the pension funds have also entered into an agreement to sell 29,400,000 nil-paid rights to Odella Resources at an average price of 0.8286 euro per right, which corresponds to 8,400,000 new shares upon their exercise.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

CIC Energy receives takeover proposal from Indian company

CIC Energy Corp., a British Virgin Islands-registered company engaged in the exploration, development and operation of coal properties in Southern Africa, and trading on the stock exchanges of Toronto and Botswana, announced that it has received a takeover bid from an unidentified Indian conglomerate. In the takeover proposal, the Indian company offered an “indicative price of US$8.50 per share” for each of BVI company's shares, and with almost 52.6 million shares of CIC Energy this would make US$447 million. This is almost three times higher than the market value of the BVI company, which is around US$166.4 million by this day.

It is said in the press-release of CIC Energy that, along with the other terms and conditions of the proposal, the price will be subject to negotiation and may change. The committee of independent directors is formed to evaluate the proposal.

According to CIC Energy, the unidentified Indian conglomerate, as well as the BVI company, has interests in coal mining and power generation.

Monday, September 6, 2010

China Mobile Communications to invest US$7.0m in BVI company

Taiwan-based mobile telecommunications company Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET) announced that it will invest US$7.0 million in British Virgin Islands-registered company Yuan Dong Technology, through its wholly-owned subsidiary FarEastern New Diligent Company also based in BVI.

The purpose of the investment is to acquire 55% stake in FarEastern New Century Information Technology (Beijing), which is wholly-owned subsidiary of Yuan Dong. FarEastern New Century Information Technology is a China-based developer of software and provider of IT system integration services, and this investment of Far EasTone Telecommunications is the first step of the telecom carrier to enter the Chinese market. FarEastern New Century will step into production of digital content in line with FET's cooperation with China Mobile Communications to provide value-added services for customers of China Mobile.