This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on December 12, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: Special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) CLIQ Energy Bhd, currently being wound-up, expects to distribute the rest of the money in its cash trust account to entitled shareholders after receiving the Inland Revenue Board’s (IRB) tax clearance, hopefully not later than the second quarter of next year (2Q18).

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, CLIQ said a proof of debt exercise had been carried out and the company is now validating and/or resolving the claims, as well as dealing with tax compliance matters.

“The company is hoping to receive IRB’s tax clearance not later than 2Q18 and the final distribution from the cash trust account to the contributories can only be determined and executed, inter alia, after obtaining the tax clearance,” it added.

On Sept 27, 2016, the liquidators of CLIQ announced that it had intended to distribute the monies held in the cash trust account in two tranches. The monies in the trust account amounted to RM362.8 million on that date.

The SPAC on Nov 14, 2016 made its first distribution, representing 98% of the monies held in the cash trust account as at Sept 13, 2016, to entitled shareholders for 73.3 sen apiece. The remaining 2% was expected to be distributed within one year from the first distribution.

CLIQ, the second oil and gas spac to list on Bursa, was ordered to be liquidated by the Securities Commission Malaysia after the regulator declined its request for more time to make a qualifying acquisition in February last year. This was followed by three failed attempts by its major shareholder Best Oracle Sdn Bhd to stop CLIQ’s liquidation. The trading of its shares was suspended on Oct 5 last year.