SINGAPORE (June 28): The founding Lim family of Hupsteel, the trader of industrial steel products, has made an offer to buy back all the shares it does not own and delist the company.
Hercules, special purpose vehicle incorporated by the Lim family to carry out the offer, is offering $1.20 for each, says Hupsteel in a Friday night filing.
The offer will be conditional upon the offeror having received more than 90% of the issued share capital at the close of the offer.
Hercules says it has no intention of revising the offer price.
The Lim family and their respective family holding companies currently own an aggregate of 66.1 million shares, or 54.16% of Hupsteel, and have given their undertaking to accept the offer.
Based on Hupsteel’s issued share capital of some 122 million, the company is valued at $146.4 million.
In the offer document, Hercules says the offer price represents a premium of 51.90% over the last transacted price per share of $0.790 on Thursday, and a premium of 58.60% over the VWAP per share for the three-month period.
In addition, the shares “have not been transacted on the SGX-ST at or above the Offer Price since May 2013,” it adds.
Hercules says the offer presents shareholders with a compelling cash exit opportunity to liquidate and realise their investment in the shares at a premium to the prevailing market prices which would otherwise not be available given the low trading liquidity.
The controlling Lim family believes that privatising the company will give the offeror and the management of the company more flexibility to manage the business of the company, optimise the use of its management and capital resources and facilitate the implementation of any operational change.
