Oil Search off to court

OIL Search says it will pursue legal action regarding orders issued this week that resulted in the suspension of its stocks being traded on the PNG National Stock Exchange (PNGX).
PNGX said it had suspended trading of Oil Search securities on Tuesday.
Chairman David Lawrence said the suspension was done in accordance with directions that PNGX received on the same day in a notice dated June 1 from Securities Commission of PNG directing PNGX to suspend the trading.
“The directions to suspend trading were given by the acting chairman of the Securities Commission of PNG, Alex Tongayu,” Lawrence said.
Tongayu, in the notice, said Oil Search had not complied with mandatory requirements to section 116 and 117 of the Capital Market Act 2015 in submitting its fundraising proposal to the commission for consideration and approval.
Tongayu further noted that Oil Search decided to proceed with the market release and even opened the offer to the public without being approved under Section 118 of the Capital Market Act 2015.
However, Oil Search in a market release, said the petroleum company had sought and obtained valid approvals for its recent capital raise, completed on May 28, 2020, from the executive chairman of the Securities Commission of Papua New Guinea, Christopher Hnanguie.
“Oil Search has at all times acted properly and complied with all its legal obligations,” the company said.
“Oil Search disputes the validity of the orders issued by the acting chairman and will vigorously defend its position by challenging the lawfulness of the orders in the National Court of Papua New Guinea.
“Oil Search remains confident that the approvals that it received are valid.
“Over the past 90 trading days, the average daily trading volume on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) was 22.3 million shares while the average daily volume traded on the PNGX was 148 shares.”
The company noted that trading of Oil Search shares on ASX would continue as normal.