Berjaya Land Bhd (BLand) has over the last year disposed of 28.77 million shares in Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd (BToto), representing a 1.7% equity stake, for a total sum of RM101.82 million.
After the disposal, BLand still has 43.16% equity interest in BToto. As a group, BLand and its parent company Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) hold 52.91% of the numbers forecast operator (NFO).
According to BLand, the shares had a carrying value of about RM107.6 million in its books, which meant that the disposal resulted in a net loss of about RM6.1 million at group level.
However, it should be noted that the original cost of investment of BLand is unknown, as according to the statement, BLand had purchased BToto shares since 1992.
Analysts were not surprised with the disposal as it was in line with the Berjaya group’s plan to pare down its holdings in its various listed subsidiaries and the proceeds could come in handy for BLand.
“The net proceeds from the disposal were utilised as working capital and repayment of bank borrowings of the BLand group,” it said in a statement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday. It said the average selling price in the open market was RM4.47.
It is worth noting that BLand has about RM1.74 billion debt (including the RM711 million exchangeable bonds) due within a year.
Following the disposals, BLand said it now owned 577.26 million shares, or 43.16% stake, in BToto while BCorp and its other subsidiaries hold 130.42 million BToto shares representing a 9.75% stake in the NFO. BCorp hold 56.67% of BLand.
According to the company, as of yesterday BToto’s total issued and paid-up share capital was RM135.19 million comprising 1.35 billion 10 sen shares.
“With the disposals, the entire BCorp group (including BLand) has a total of 707.68 million BToto shares representing about 52.91% equity interest in BToto,” it said.
It added that 13.53 million BToto shares had been purchased and retained as treasury shares, whereas the number of BToto shares with voting rights amounted to 1.34 billion.
The Berjaya group of companies is controlled by tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan, who has diversified business operations ranging from property development to the services sector.
According to the statement, Tan personally and through his private companies (excluding BCorp) owns a 6.07% and 1.56% stake in BLand and BToto respectively as at April 25.
Recently it was reported that BToto was seeking investors for half its NFO business in a deal valued at some US$1 billion (RM2.99 billion). However, the company dismissed the report and told Bursa it was “no longer pursuing a possible corporate exercise which may result in the entry of a strategic investor”.
Both BCorp and BLand ended yesterday at RM1.12, while BToto closed four sen lower to RM4.21 with 2.96 million shares transacted. - by Melody Song of theedgemalaysia.com
No comments:
Post a Comment