The managing director of the company Low Keng Huat, Marco Low Peng Kiat, is making a voluntary conditional general offer for all the shares in the company at 72 cents per share.
Low is offering to take his company private through a special purpose vehicle incorporated in Singapore in July, known as Consistency Record. Low and his mother, Seah Soh Seng, each hold 75% and 25% of the shares in Consistency Record.
As at the date of this announcement, Consistency Record does not hold any shares in Low Keng Huat. However, Low himself has a direct interest of 300,000 shares or about 0.04% of the total number of shares in the company.
Low’s intention to take the company private is because he is of the view that the company is unlikely to require access to the Singapore equity markets in the foreseeable future, as funding can be met through bank borrowings and other debt financing options.
Low also believes that the privatisation will help to save on listing costs, and will enable the company to have more flexibility in navigating the challenging business environment.
The offer price of 72 cents represents a premium of 17.1% of the last transacted price of the company, and 8.9% premium over the volume weighted average price per share for the one month period including up to the last trading date.
See also: Property tycoon Koh Wee Meng and Aspial launch 11-cent offer to take AF Global private
Low Keng Huat was incorporated on the mainboard in 1992, and the principal activities of the company comprise construction, property development, ownership and operation of serviced apartments, a hotel and a restaurant.
The company has an issued and paid-up share capital of $162,151,305 comprising 738,816,000 shares
