The good oil

The privately-held Perth-based investment company Wyllie Group has taken a 15 per cent stake in oil producer Amadeus Energy, as it continues to switch its focus away from the property sector.

Wyllie will take 25 million shares at 55c each in a placement, while Wyllie advisors and executives Craig Coleman and Stephen Pearce will take one million shares each and join the Amadeus board.

Wyllie describes the stake as a "strategic investment”, but its next move will likely await a corporate review that is to be conducted by a yet-to-be appointed external consultant.

Amadeus's main assets are oil-producing tenements spread across four states in the southern US, from which it derived an EBITDA of $18.1 million in the first half and is expecting more in the current half because of rising oil prices.

Bill Wyllie made his fortune in Hong Kong before returning to Australia in 1992. He died in 2006 and the company is now run by his daughter, Melissa Karlson. His second wife, Rhonda Wyllie, remains on the board. Wyllie Group last year launched a private equity fund called Viburnum.