FOCUS POINT to be listed on Monday

After an 11th hour pullout, Focus Point Holdings Bhd will finally be listed on the local exchange on Monday.

Focus Point was the only company in history to set a date for listing on the Malaysian stock exchange, only to defer it on debut day.

The company controls the largest chain of optical shops and centres in the country, with an estimated 10% market share for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2009.

Based on Bursa announcements, a total of 564 shareholders of Focus Point, collectively holding 14.62 million shares or 26% of the initial public offering (IPO), had exercised an exit option offered upon the deferral of the initial listing.

By our calculation, this works out to a refund of RM5.7 million.

The listing was derailed due to the emergence of a complaint made to the regulators on July 23 claiming, among other things, that contact lenses were prescribed or dispensed by personnel who were not qualified to do so.

The company responded to the allegations on July 26, and went on to cease the prescription and dispensing of contact lenses from certain outlets without the qualified personnel.

Prior to the cessation, as at Dec 31, 2009, 38 of the group’s 64 professional eyecare centres were found to have been dispensing contact lenses over the counter without an optometrist or optician who is qualified to prescribe or dispense contact lenses.

In an announcement earlier, Focus Point said the cessation at the 38 centres would have a 4.85% effect on FY09’s group revenue and a 3.68% effect on group gross profit.

On Aug 17, the company’s investment bankers, OSK Investment Bank Bhd, had submitted an application to Bursa Malaysia Securities requesting a waiver of the condition that at least 25% of the total number of shares listed should be taken up by a minimum of 200 public shareholders holding 100 or more shares each.

They also requested that the company’s promoters, namely president and CEO Datuk Liaw Choon Liang and his wife, executive director Datin Goh Poi Eong, be permitted to hold more shares than originally contemplated as a result of the exit option.

Bursa agreed, stipulating that the additional shares arising from the exit option be disposed of within six months from the listing date.

In a research report dated Aug 10, OSK Research set a target price of 42 sen for Focus Point shares. The IPO price was set at 39 sen per share.


This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, August 20, 2010.