Petrocorp popular

Press, 6 August 1987, Page 29

Petrocorp popular

Petrocorp said last evening that its share issue had met with strong support in both the domestic and overseas markets, and it appeared that it would be oversubscribed.

Perkins Hargreaves, Ltd, of Christchurch, the share registry handling the issue, estimates that the majority of the investors are first-time sharebuyers. “Usually when a new company floats, perhaps 20 per cent of the investors are first-timers,” said Mr Matthew Glubb, the general manager of Perkins Hargreaves. “Petrocorp has been quite different, seeming to attract many thousands of new investors. There has been a high level of support from people who have never previously held shares. Mmany of these investors are applying for small parcels, which is exactly what Petrocorp was seeking to encourage — they were wanting the issue to have the widest possible spread.”

Mr Glubb attributed the large response by new investors to several factors. “Petrocorp has

had a highly visible advertising campaign, the sharemarket is picking up generally, there is intense interest in the whole oil/mining area, and frankly the issue was an exciting one,” he said.

Many of Perkins Hargreaves Christchurch staff of 80 have been working full-time on processing the applications for the last two weeks. “We are working two and even three shifts daily to clear the high number of applications.” Mr Glubb expected that this would be achieved within the next few days. Among the more than 150 public company clients of Perkins Hargreaves are Brierley Investments, the Bank of New Zealand, Wellesley Resources, Omnicorp, and Equiticorp. They will also act for the Development Finance Corporation when it is floated later this year.

Mr Glubb said there had been a flood of lastminute applications. “First thing this morning 85 courier packs were delivered, which is just an indication of the volume of the numbers of applications coming in

through the day,” he said.

Perkins Hargreaves hoped to have completed processing applications by Sunday, Mr Glubb said, and to forward the schedule to the company by Monday. The company would then determine the allotment, and planned to mail scrip to subscribers on Monday, August 17.

Of the IM million shares in the float only 25M shares were reserved for a public pool, with 44M placed with brokers for allocation to clients, 25M to Swiss Bank Corporation for overseas investors and 6M for Petrocorp staff. Brierley Investments has taken 100 M shares.

The Government said in the prospectus that it intends reducing its shareholding to 41 per cent by the sale of 180 M of its remaining 45GM shares. But this would not take place this financial year. Petrocorp is forecasting a net profit of SIOIM in the year to March, 1988, against its reported SB7.«M profit in the March, 1987, year.