Polo Resources begins year with confidence

The AIM traded company’s net assets totalled $73.03m on 31 December, and $75.53m on 16 March. Its net asset value per share was 16.31p at the end of 2015, and 17.23p on 16 March.

During the period, Signet Petroleum - in which Polo held a 42% investment - decided to wind down its operations, with Polo receiving a cash distribution of $691,000 and an in-specie distribution of 1.89 million shares in the privately-held Regalis Petroleum.

Those shares were in addition to the 3.5 million already held by Polo and brought its total shareholding in Regalis to 13.67%.

The company also subscribed to 90 million shares in Malaysian-listed Hibiscus Petroleum, representing an 8.4% stake, though that had since been diluted.

Within the period, Hibiscus announced a joint acquisition by a wholly-owned subsidiary and Ping Petroleum to each take 50% of the Shell and Esso interests of the Anasuria oil field in the UK central North Sea, for a total cash consideration of $52.5m.

That acquisition was completed post-period end.

Polo also held a 7.8% interest in Blackham Resources, which released a preliminary feasibility study in October demonstrating ‘robust economics’ for its 4.7 million ounce Matilda Gold Project.

The company also reported positive progress at its other minor investments, including Weatherly International - a copper miner - and Canadian metals producer Ironstone resources.

"Polo is entering 2016 with the financial capacity to both invest and also maintain our equity positions within our current portfolio,” said executive chairman Datuk Michael Tang.

“With improving investment sentiment and prices emerging across the natural resources sector, the Board of Polo is looking forward to an exciting 2016 where we anticipate through our producer sector portfolio investments, Blackham, Hibiscus and Weatherly a year of positive news as commodity prices show signs of recovery."