GP Industries disposes remainder of shares in Taiwan associate

The disposal of its shares was first conducted on April 6, when nine million ordinary STL shares were sold at a volume-weighted average price of NTD23.85 per share.

The gross consideration before transaction costs from the disposal amounts to around NTD214.7 million.

The volume-weighted average price of each STL share on April 1, being the last market day of the Taipei Exchange preceding the date of disposal, was NTD26.41. Based on the market price of NTD26.41, the market value of the shares sold was approximately NTD237.7 million.

On June 2, another 6.6 million shares in STL were disposed of via a series of on-market transactions for a total of NTD292.1 million.

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On Sept 18, a further 1.005 million shares in STL were disposed of via the market for a total of NTD41.9 million.

GP Industries says it intends to use the net proceeds from the disposal to strengthen its cashflow and to repay bank loans.

STL Technology is an indirectly held wholly-owned subsidiary of SGX-listed GP Industries. It is principally engaged in the design, manufacturing and sales of battery packs for power tools, energy storage systems and light electric vehicles, and is a non-core business of the company with limited contribution to the company.

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For the 1HFY2021 ended Sept 30, 2021, GP Industries’ share of results of STL amounted to a loss of around $0.5 million, while the company’s share of results for the FY2022 ended March came up to a loss of around $0.1 million.

Shares in GP Industries closed flat at 63 cents on Sept 20.