IPO ... Bumi Armada

Malaysian oil and gas services provider, Bumi Armada, plans to raise nearly $1 billion from its initial public offer.

Sources say it is a $1 billion IPO, which values the company at about 20 times price-earnings for its 2011 earnings, and 16 times for 2012.

The company filed a draft prospectus for its IPO with the country's securities regulator.

Bumi Armada plans to sell 878.6 million shares, of which 644.3 million are new shares and the rest are existing shares held by its present shareholders through the IPO.

The draft prospectus did not detail the timeline of the share offer or the composition of shares that will be made available to institutional and retail investors, as is the practice for draft filings in Malaysia.

Bumi Armada specialises is an offshore support specialist, and is the only Malaysian company that owns floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels, which carry a premium lease rate.

The IPO, which will be one of the largest announced in Southeast Asia in 2011, has been delayed several times in the past few years.

Bumi Armada was privatised in 2003 by tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan, and a planned relisting in 2008 was delayed due to the global financial crisis. A subsequent relisting plan was also shelved.