DTE Dartenergy Fpo

Coal seam gas producer Dart Energy Ltd. (DTE.AU) said Tuesday it has deferred listing its international assets on the Singapore Stock Exchange due to weak equities markets and a steep fall in its share price.

It joins an expanding group of companies that have canned impending initial public offerings amid a global share market downturn sparked by Europe's sovereign debt woes. Coal miner Ambre Energy this month delayed a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange beyond June and China Yongda Automobiles, which sells BMWs and Toyotas in China, on Monday scrapped an up to US$433 million float.

"Doing a listing at this price in this market would have been more or less giving the assets away," Eytan Uliel, Dart's Chief Commercial Officer told Dow Jones Newswires.

Shares in the company were up half a cent at 20.5 cents each at 0409. They listed in 2010 at 72 cents and peaked above A$1.30 in October of that year.

Apart from owning properties in China, India and Indonesia, Dart has been picking up unconventional acreage including shale gas prospects in the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland.

A listing in Singapore remains an option when markets recover, but Dart's swelling European portfolio means it could chose to list in London instead, Eytan said.

The company will also consider alternative corporate level transactions, and Eytan confirmed it's in contact with potential investors in individual assets.

Dart hasn't started producing gas commercially from any of its properties. The company has A$70 million in cash and liquids assets and is in the process of finalizing a US$100 million debt facility arranged by HSBC that will go towards funding projects in Scotland, China and Indonesia.

Small amounts of revenue are planned to start flowing from pilot wells drilled in Scotland towards the end of the year. Dart has signed a more substantial sales contract with a Scottish utility, which Eytan said is the company's first "big project".

"My estimate is that we will be able to start delivering large volumes of gas to them in the second half of next year," Eytan said.

U.K. utilities are keen to find new sources of energy, given a current reliance on offshore supplies from Russia and Norway.

Dart was created in 2010 when Arrow Energy's offshore assets were spun out into a different company when Arrow was acquired by Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina.

Dart still owns some Australian assets, largely in New South Wales state, where coal seam gas production remains a hot political issue amid strong resistance from farmers and community groups.

-By Ross Kelly, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4692; Ross.Kelly@dowjones.com

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