Cougar Energy Limited has executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Direct Invest Pte Ltd, the Singapore domiciled subsidiary of the Direct Invest Group, to establish Cougar Direct Invest China Limited (CDIC) for the purpose of developing Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) projects in the People's Republic of China and in Mongolia.

CDIC will be 60% owned by Cougar Energy and 40% owned by Direct Invest Pte Ltd with equal board representation and voting rights.

The MOU envisages the establishment of special purpose companies for each project identified for development, with the funding to be sourced through individual equity raisings and bank finance.

Both China and Mongolia possess vast coal resources and CDIC will be seeking to build business relationships with the major mining and exploration companies in both countries.

Direct Invest is chaired by Michael Dobbs-Higginson, who has had a distinguished career as an investment banker and an entrepreneur in Europe and Asia, as well as being a non-executive chairman, director and/or advisor to various public and private companies particularly in Asia. For a period of six years he was Chairman of Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific and a member of Merrill Lynch New York's Global Capital Committee. Prior to that, he held similar positions with Credit Suisse First Boston. He is based in Singapore and is involved with a number of international companies in their investments in the Asia Pacific region.

Mr Dobbs-Higginson is directly involved in the identification of projects for CDIC, and preliminary discussions with the first Chinese company have been initiated by him. This company's core business is in clean energy and environmental protection applications. It operates in 20 provinces in China, and provides a range of services to the major coal mining companies in those provinces.

Dr Len Walker, Managing Director of Cougar Energy, commented, 'The Chinese authorities have signalled their intention to tackle the challenge of reducing emissions from their coal mining operations. We believe that UCG technology is at the forefront of producing both cleaner and cheaper energy from such resources in long-term sustainable operations. There are many prospective sites in both China and Mongolia which are suitable for UCG development.'

'CDIC has been founded to combine the complimentary talents of the shareholders, and to ensure that projects in the region are developed using a sound long-term strategy. We bring the technical evaluation and project design and development skills and combine this with Direct Invest's ability to evaluate and structure projects and its extensive network of contacts in China and Mongolia'.

'The development of projects via CDIC represents a highly prospective and exciting growth opportunity for Cougar Energy as we continue to expand our coal resources and operating entities across the globe utilising the world's leading commercial UCG technology,' said Dr Walker

Tags: Cougar Energy Limited