Protasco: more delays and less transparency

I blogged before about Protasco's Puzzling Purchase.

Today Protasco announced that

"PT ASU and PB had on 30 September 2013, via an exchange of letters, agreed to extend the Due Diligence Period and Condition Period for a further six (6) months to 31 March 2014 to complete the Proposed Acquisition.

The request by PT ASU for an extension of the Due Diligence Period and the Condition Period to 31 March 2014 is due to the following:-

(i) substantial time required to compile and reply to the extensive list of information and documentation requested by PB pursuant to the legal, financial and technical due diligence/valuation process; and

(ii) to accommodate Pertamina’s evaluation and approval process to approve PT Haseba’s request for an extension of ten (10) years to expire on 14 December 2024, to the PMP Agreement for the KST Field."


And all that time Protasco's RM 50 million of cash (the remarkably high deposit that it paid) is gone, and thus its ability to generate interest on it.

This in exchange for a security in shares in Indonesian counter INVS. Shares that have completely collapsed in value. My guess is that the security is only worth about RM 15 million, in other words RM 35 million "under water".

Something that Protasco "conveniently" forgets to mention in its latest announcement.

But then again, transparency was never Protasco's strongest point.....

Lembaga Tabung Haji announced it sold several tranches of shares in the company.

Tomorrow there is an EGM to vote about an Employee Share Scheme, in which almost 50 million shares can be allocated to Directors and employees.