Fastnet Oil & Gas - Re: FAST Stream Log - From the SBP...Fastnet has already...

From the SBP...Fastnet has already identified a number of healthcare companies as possible takeover targets if the company’s shareholders approve its plans to exit the oil and gas exploration industry. If the switch is voted through, Fastnet will look to become a similar vehicle to Malin, the biotech investment fund that joined the Irish stock exchange in March and is now worth more than €450 million. It is also considering proposals that would allow a potential target to do a reverse takeover into Fastnet if the deal was right. Fastnet has almost $16 million (€14.3 million) in cash to invest in potential deals and it is thought that several companies have already approached it. Fastnet, which has assets off the Irish coast and in Morocco, called time on its role in the energy industry last week, just over three years after launching on the stock exchange. “The board has decided it doesn’t see a future in what we are doing in the Celtic Sea. Rather than keep on that track we have been pretty proactive and given the shareholders the right to vote and say, look folks, we’d like to get out of the oil and gas industry and do we have your permission,” Fastnet chairman Cathal Friel said. The company began a review of its options last year as the prospect of capitalising on its exploration licences diminished. It will hand back its licences to authorities in Ireland and Morocco once the shareholder vote takes place. Apart from the cash pile Fastnet is sitting on, the company has dramatically scaled back its overheads to just $600,000 and that figure may fall even further. The company said it hit on the healthcare and biopharmaceutical sectors as areas that are fast growing and offer potentially large returns. If shareholders back the proposals at a special meeting at the end of August, the company will change its name to Fastnet Equity. If it fails to pull off the new strategy in the space of 18 months it will wind up the company and hand back any surplus cash to investors. As part of the change of strategy, Fastnet chief executive Carol Law, an American with extensive experience in the oil business, is stepping down but will work out a three month notice period. Exploration firms have fallen out of favour with investors this year as the price of oil continues to slump. It fell to a six-year low last week as analysts slashed their price forecasts for this year and next. Oil prices have been hit by a fall in demand in the US, which is increasingly relying on different forms of energy sources and a glut of supply coming from the Middle East. On top of that, investing in Ireland’s oil and gas exploration sector has always been a risky bet. The chances of striking a major find are very slim. The last major discovery, at Corrib, is still not delivering onshore gas, decades after it was discovered. There was a further blow to offshore drilling last week with Lansdowne Oil & Gas abandoning a gas field it has been testing since July. Meanwhile, Providence Resources, which says it has discovered vast quantities of gas near to Fastnet’s Irish licence area, is still attempting to finalise an agreement with a major energy company to develop the field. The Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources is currently offering a number of licences to drill for oil and gas off the Atlantic coast. The deadline to submit applications is mid September. Shares in Fastnet rose initially on foot of the announcement. The stock has traded consistently below its net asset value per share of 2.9 pence this year and the move was welcomed by the markets. “The announcement is a stark statement of the conditions currently facing the industry, particularly for those trying to monetise offshore frontier areas,” analysts at British brokerage Panmure said in a note to clients.