Udenna Backs-out from EMAS Rescue

Philippine's Udenna Corporation has broken off negotiations over a potential investment of $73 million in struggling Singapore-based offshore vessel company Emas Offshore.

The ailing Singaporean contractor Emas Offshore announced in a regulatory filing that Udenna had informed the company that it would no longer be injecting $73.29 million into the offshore services provider. No reasons were given in the announcement for Udenna's decision.

Dennis Uy-led Udenna is the parent company of Pheonix Petroleum and Chelsea Logistics Holdings.

Udenna and Emas inked a non-binding term sheet last October, that would have seen the former pumping the money into Emas Offshore as part of the financial restructuring of the group.  Udenna had an exclusive five-week period to do its due diligence, and to propose and finalise mutually acceptable terms and conditions for a binding agreement. However, the formal binding agreement did not materialise.

This is the second time that an agreement failed to materialise, which again delays its restructuring efforts. Oil and gas equipment supplier Baker Technology pulled out of a rescue plan last July, when a subsidiary scrapped a term sheet for a joint equity injection of $50 million.