Fosun International’s wholly-owned subsidiary Transcendent Resources has completed the acquisition of Roc Oil Company, one of Australia's leading independent upstream oil and gas companies, taking 92.6% of its outstanding share capital.
ROC has significant presence in China, Malaysia, Australia and the UK’s North Sea regions. China’s production accounts for 72% of its 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.
A company statement said 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 US$251 million and gross profit of US$96 million.
Fosun International’s chairman Guo Guangchang said, “Fosun has strong industrial operational experience in mining and energy sectors. 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”.
“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,” noted 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. 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.