C.A.T.oil AG IPO 1st. Oilco on Deutsche Bourse

" Catoil ist kein Unternehmen wie jedes andere. Das Unternehmen will der erste Ölwert an der deutschen Börse werden, möglichst bald sogar im MDax." says the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitschrift.

On Thursday May 4th 2006 the Austrian oil company C.A.T.oil AG has an IPO (Isin AT0000A00Y78) of 8Mn shares priced at Euro 12.5 / 15.00 to raise some Euro 290Mn, 55% of which will go to current shareholders and the rest for capital expansion.In 2005 the revenues were stated to be Euro 157 Mn with profits of Euro 18.2 Mn with forecast T/ Euro 220 Mn and profits of Euro 30Mn and Euro 339 MN. (Prospective EPS of Euro 0.65 offering PE of 23'ish) and Euro 339 MN.with profits of Euro 58 Mn in 2007.

C.A.T. oil AG was registered in Celle, Austria in 1991 and is launching an IPO on the Deutsche Bourse amid some mystery and much speculation. An anonymous owner with connections in Cyprus holds 60% of the company and Anna Brinkmann from Celle, in Lower Saxony is another large holder of the company which commenced trading in 1991. Failure to disclose the main owners identity led to USB bank withdrawing before the launch but Christopher Seibt of Freshfields points out that in enterprises in external countries , unlike those in Germany are not obliged to identify majority owners.

Operating in freezing cold West Siberia and Central Asia in Kazakhstan which are now investment hot spots, they have over 2,000 employees, who says Brinkmann "help the oil industry get the black gold out up to 5,000 metres depth". To do this Catoil specializes in Hydraulic Fracturing - or "Hydrofracturing in which Hydraulic / chemical fluids are pumped to open up the ground at depth and elease oil.Contracts with oilcos are generally of one year GazPROM, LUKoil, Rosneft and TNK-BP KazMunaiGazare mentioned on their Website - which they point out the 3 larlargest have proven oil and gas reserves of 42 BOE = 12 % of all proven reserves in Russia.).

CEO 44 year old Manfred Kastner who joined the company last year, is pleased that they will be the first oil company on the German Exchange.,, they apparently considred a listing on the LSE.

Wholly owned subsidiaries are Catkoneft and Catobneft led by Eugeni Goriatshev, who was
formerly in the Russian oil Ministry, the companies are used to operating in Russia from Kogalym and Nishnivartovsk where outside temperatures range from -33° to +50°.

Business partners are companies such as Gaz PROM and Lukoil. The supervisory board
chairman Gerhard Strate is a Promi lawyer and defender of the Moroccan Mounir al
Motassadeq the alleged Al Quaeda terrist. (In February 2003 he was convicted in Germany of
over 3,000 counts of accessory to murder for 7 years and released on 7th feb this year
for absence of proof - curiously he married in 1999, married a woman from St. Petersburg,
Russia, Putin's power base)

For success and growth in the future in this future market there are 3 crucially important factors:

1. Proven, specialized know-how from experience of many years
2. Anchorage and established business relations in Russia and Kazakhstan
3. Modern technology and equipment

They certainly appear to have that but it will be a brave private individual who buys in on Thursday at the price of Euros21 which the market is said to be expecting... But then I thought that with Burren Energy when that was launched.