Once a stock loses the majority of its value, a certain kind of melancholy descends upon it, and Rex International has been experiencing it for some time. The oil and gas exploration company, which is listed in Singapore, is currently trading close to 0.091 SGD, down 47% in the last six months and about 82% from its peak. Nothing about the modest Robinson Road office in Singapore’s financial district suggests the scope of the slide. However, the charts clearly illustrate the situation. Conviction is put to the test by this type of decline.
On paper, the company’s business is doing well. Rex’s revenue for 2025 increased from 298.88 million SGD to 319.72 million SGD. With exploration activity in Malaysia, its subsidiaries run producing assets in Norway through Lime Petroleum and offshore Oman through Masirah Oil. A new well, the AK-2H, was drilled offshore in Benin earlier this year, production is actual, and money is coming in. The issue is that debt has subtly increased while profitability has stagnated.
It’s that debt that causes discomfort. The balance sheet’s total debt nearly tripled to 411 million SGD in 2025 from about 144 million the previous year. Even when there are positive aspects to the operational picture, institutional investors are turned off by the fact that total liabilities now exceed total assets. Rex revealed in April that a subsidiary would issue super senior bonds to cover past-due debt. The news caused a 35% increase in shares, most likely due to relief rather than excitement. The chairman announced his resignation a few days later. It was difficult to miss the sequencing.
Gas and oil Small-cap companies like Rex seldom receive the benefit of the doubt when obstacles mount because E&P has always been a cyclical, punishing business. Rex Virtual Drilling technology, the company’s flagship asset in Oman, has a long history. The company’s ability to use seismic data more effectively than its larger rivals once made it a favorite among Singaporean retail traders. It’s an old story. The operational updates read more defensively than they used to, and production from Oman, Norway, and Germany decreased in March.
However, beneath the chart, something almost intriguing is taking place. With a 12-month price target of about 0.32 SGD, analysts covering Rex continue to hold a strong buy consensus, suggesting an increase of more than 250% from current levels. That is a huge disparity. Either the market is correct and the estimates don’t reflect the reality on the balance sheet, or the analysts are working with fundamentals that the market won’t price in. One side is typically seriously mistaken when a stock trades at a fraction of analyst targets, though it’s still unclear which side will win.
The most devoted holders here have been retail investors. Insiders own nearly 43% of the company, while individual investors own about 48%. Because of this peculiar ownership structure, institutions have largely stayed away, and small accounts and management have been the ones bearing the brunt of the suffering. It’s difficult not to feel a little sorry for the patient investors who saw the stock plummet through 2024 and into 2026 after purchasing at higher levels.
Whether the super senior bond issuance stabilizes the cash situation, whether Oman’s production resumes its upward trend, and whether a new chairman can restore some sense of direction are some of the specific factors that will determine what happens next. As this develops, it seems like Rex is at the kind of turning point where stories either go one of two ways: either the drift continues until the equity becomes essentially a footnote in the restructuring, or a true recovery quietly builds for those who held on. Stories about oil have a tendency to surprise both parties. When someone looks at Rex today, they are effectively placing a wager on what kind of surprise this one will turn out to be.
