FOCUS POINT owner forgoes small fortune

FOCUS Point Holdings Bhd's exit option means that a major shareholder will not make as much from a share sale, but the group will still get the required funds to expand.

Malaysia's largest chain of professional eyecare had to refund a third of its public shareholders with 14.6 million shares under an exit option after delaying a listing due to a complaint.

Focus Point's initial public offering involves the sale of 41.2 million new shares and an offer for sale of 15.8 million existing shares.

A company raises funds when it sells new shares to other investors, but when a shareholder sells existing shares, the money goes to him and not the company.

"The offer for sale under the prospectus provides for up to 15.8 million shares to be offered to the public by Goh Poi Eong.

"Pursuant to the exit option, Goh has opted to reduce her amount of shares offered to the public," Focus Point said in a statement.

Goh is one of the majority shareholders of Focus Point.

The company said the remaining shares from the exit option were taken up by the company's underwriter OSK Investment Bank Bhd and new investors. It did not name the new investors.

On Wednesday, Focus Point said 564 public subscribers had exercised the exit option it offered earlier in the month.

The eyecare retailer said Bursa Malaysia had waived the need for the company to have a public shareholders' spread of at least 200 with more than 100 shares each.

Shares underwritten by the promoters of Focus Point, pursuant to the exit point, were also exempted of the usual moratorium.

Bursa Malaysia, however, stated that these shares must be sold in the open market within six months of their listing date.

Focus Point's debut on the ACE Market has been rescheduled to August 23.

The enlarged capital of Focus Point is 165 million and the exit option shares constitute about 9 per cent of its total shares.



By Lynn Omar
btimes.com.my