Madagascar Oil tax in dispute before float
Rowena Mason
UK Telegraph 04 Jan 2011
Last month the Madagascar government announced that it planned to seize the oil group’s licences forcing Madagascar Oil to suspend trading in its shares just three weeks after the company floated on AIM.
The suspension was another blow to the reputation of the AIM market, coming just weeks after fellow oil minnow Desire Petroleum claimed to have found oil, only to admit days later that it was only water.
Laurie Hunter, Madagascar Oil’s chief executive, claimed in a interview just before its £50m listing that “the Government looks favourably on [the company],” and later argued the seizure notice had come out of the blue.
However, it emerges in the company’s admission prospectus that the company has been in dispute with the Government over a tax bill since July. It is still in conflict with the Government and taking it to appeal over the contested $7m sum.
Advisers made £4m by bringing Madagascar Oil to market. Corporate adviser Strand Hanson got £250,000 plus expenses, while Mirabaud Securities and GMP Securities got £15,000 each for acting as joint brokers. Financial public relations advisers Pelham Bell Pottinger were paid a £70,000 lump sum, plus a quarterly retainer of £15,000.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/8235930...
