PERTH-BASED oil junior Pura Vida is sparring with a Chinese media play to become the last listing in 2011, a lean year for initial public offerings after the heady years that led up to the GFC and buoyancy of 2009-10 as the market believed the downturn had been avoided.
Pura Vida, which has announced plans to raise $4 million to fund exploration off the coast of Morocco, plans to list on the ASX two days before Christmas, the same day as Asian Pay TV and gaming and entertainment company China Integrated Media Corporation, which plans to raise $6 million.
Pura Vida is one of around 35 companies listed by the ASX among its upcoming floats.
The ASX will need most of these listing hopefuls to go ahead despite the difficult market conditions if it wants the total number of companies on its exchange to regain ground, after sliding from a peak of 2,247 in June this year to drop to 2,227 in October.
In January there were 2,220 companies on the ASX, collectively capitalised at $1,416.6 billion.
By comparison, the total ASX was worth $1,262.3 billion in October, down from the annual peak of $1,447.8 billion in March.
The highest collective market capitalisation on a monthly basis was in September 2007, when the ASX peaked at $1,643.6 billion before sliding below the $1,000 billion level in November 2008 and bottoming out at $888.26 billion.
The current group of ASX-listed companies includes 92 foreign entities, one less than the historic high also reached in June.
As usual, resources companies dominate the current crop of listing hopefuls, with some appearing to have put their plans on hold for months.
Pura Vida holds a 75 per cent interest in permits covering about 11,000 square kilometres of Morocco’s Mazagan Offshore Area, which has been independently certified as containing more than a billion barrels of oil.
The company’s main prospect, Toubkal, was located 100km off the Moroccan coast.
