This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 29, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: The legal tussle between CLIQ Energy Bhd and the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) is set to start soon.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday fixed May 6 for the hearing of the leave application by Best Oracle Sdn Bhd, which controls a 20% stake in CLIQ, to prevent the liquidation of the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Best Oracle’s legal representative Datuk Kamarul Hisham told The Edge Financial Daily that the SC’s

representative made an appearance yesterday to object to the judicial review sought by his client.

Also present in the court yesterday were CLIQ managing director and chief executive officer Ahmad Ziyad Elias, executive director and chief financial officer Kamarul Baharin Albakri, vice-president (exploration) Felix Chang Kok Lip and vice-president (development and production) Kamaroll Zaman Abdul Aziz.

The second oil-and-gas SPAC listed on Bursa Malaysia had proposed to buy a 51% stake in a special purpose vehicle that will host Phystech Firm LLP’s two onshore Kazakhstan oilfields for US$110 million last year, but the application for the proposed qualifying acquisition (QA) was returned by the SC in January due to incomplete information submission.

On Feb 15, the board wrote to the regulator, seeking more time to complete its proposed QA. However, the SC declined to grant the extension. Consequently, the company had to be liquidated.

On April 10, when its trust account matured, CLIQ’s management team filed the judicial review application to block the company from proceeding with the liquidation.

Subsequently, CLIQ filed a winding-up petition in the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Monday, although its management team is still seeking the judicial review on the SC’s decision that could have led to the liquidation process.

As CLIQ has failed its QA bid, it remains a shell company with no core business or notable asset. According to the Equity Guidelines, it has to return 90% of the proceeds raised from its initial public offering (IPO), which totalled RM355.72 million as at Feb 12, 2016, to its IPO shareholders.

CLIQ’s share price closed unchanged at 67.5 sen yesterday, which is equivalent to a gross trust per share of 67.5 sen as at the time of listing.