OilSands Canada closes IPO

Middlefield Group, on behalf of OilSands Canada Corp., said the fund has completed an initial public offering of 5 million units at C$10 apiece for gross proceeds of C$50 million.

Groppe, Long & Littell, a Houston-based oil and gas consulting firm, will be special advisor to Middlefield, providing it with an analysis of the global economic and political forces impacting the prices of oil and natural gas.

Henry Groppe, founder of the firm, will primarily be involved in providing services to the fund.

The fund has been created to provide long-term capital appreciation by investing in an actively managed, diversified portfolio comprised primarily of publicly listed energy-related equity securities of issues that operate in or have exposure to the Canadian oil sands sector.

Up to 20 percent of the portfolio may be invested in securities of private issuers which are seen as acquisition targets or could become publicly listed in the near and midterm.

In the oil and gas and mining sectors, Toronto-based Middlefield has acted as agent or manager for more than C$1.5 billion of resource investments since 1983.

—Gary Park