KUALA LUMPUR (March 21): Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd has emerged as a substantial shareholder of CLIQ Energy Bhd after acquiring 31.79 million shares, or a 5.039% stake, on the open market.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, CLIQ Energy said the London-based company acquired the shares on March 15.

Meanwhile, a separate filing showed that Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group AG, through Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) and Credit Suisse Securites (USA) LLC, acquired 666,500 shares of CLIQ Energy, also on March 15.

With this, the group owns 45.22 million shares or an indirect interest of 7.167% in CLIQ Energy.

CLIQ Energy, the second oil and gas special purpose acquisition company to be listed on Bursa, announced on Feb 24 that it will be liquidated after the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) declined its request for more time to acquire its qualifying asset (QA).

On March 10, CLIQ quashed speculation that it had submitted a fresh appeal to the SC for additional time to complete its QA.

Last year, CLIQ Energy had proposed to buy a 51% stake in a special-purpose vehicle that would host Phystech Firm LLP's two onshore Kazakhstan oilfields for US$110 million (RM455 million), but the application was returned by the SC in January on the grounds of incomplete information.

Credit Suisse Group AG had previously emerged as CLIQ's substantial shareholder on Oct 9, 2014, with a stake of 5.024%, but quit as substantial shareholder twice in the past two years, before resurfacing with a 5.43% stake on Feb 25. It has been acquiring more CLIQ Energy shares after its emergence as a substantial shareholder.

At 3.23pm today, shares of CLIQ Energy rose 0.5 sen or 0.73% to 69.5 sen, for a market capitalisation of RM438.05 million.