NewOcean Energy (00342) adds stake in oil products business

    NewOcean Energy (00342) said it agreed to acquire the entire equity interest in Success Pillar at HK$250 million.
  The principal business of Success Pillar is the holding of a 51% equity interest in the Ego Time Group, with the remaining 49% being held by NewOcean Energy through Maxx Investments. Success Pillar and the Ego Time Group jointly developed a spearhead project for NewOcean Energy's oil products business by starting an exploratory bunkering operation in Hong Kong territorial waters.
  The acquisition offered the opportunity for NewOcean Energy to own, for the first time, a 100% effective interest in the Ego Time Group by regaining the 33.15% effective interest in the Ego Time Group disposed of in 2012, as well as acquiring all other interest in Ego Time not owned by NewOcean Energy at the spearhead project stage. This will substantially reinforce the operation of the oil products business of the Group by providing a single clear development target, a widening of the Group's oil products customer network, and better efficiency in the logistic infrastructure which the Group has built up in the last two years.