PetroSaudi International Ltd, Seychelles yesterday extended a mandatory general offer (MGO) for the remaining shares the company and parties-in-concert do not own in Loh & Loh Corp Bhd and Putrajaya Perdana Bhd (PPB).
The offer price for the shares in Loh & Loh and PPB is set at RM4.85 per share, which is an 8% premium to Loh & Loh’s last traded price of RM4.49 on Sept 27 and 15.5% premium to PPB’s last price of RM4.20 on Sept 23.
The MGOs for the two companies were long expected as PetroSaudi had in January offered to acquire an 89.8% stake in both companies’ parent, UBG Bhd, from the latter’s major shareholders, which include Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd and parties linked to Penang businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low), at RM2.50 a share.
The acquisitions of UBG by PetroSaudi became unconditional yesterday, hence triggering the regulatory requirement for the Seychelles outfit to carry out MGOs for the remaining shares it (together with parties acting in concert) doesn’t own in UBG, Loh & Loh and PPB. UBG owns 80.32% of Loh & Loh and 85.85% of PPB.
Shares of Loh & Loh and PPB had been thinly traded since the beginning of the year although a takeover offer from PetroSaudi was already anticipated. There were little interest in the two counters due to their limited public float and the fact that PetroSaudi had, at that time, not come to the stage of announcing the offer price for Loh & Loh and PPB.
PetroSaudi had said that it intended to de-list UBG, which together with its units Loh & Loh and PPB would become its Malaysian construction arm. The group, through Loh & Loh, had in March won an RM828.3 million contract from Tenaga Nasional Bhd for the Hulu Terangganu hydroelectric project, and is also keen on bidding for such jobs in Sarawak under the Sarawak Corridor of Renewal Energy initiatives.
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, September 30, 2010.
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