KUALA LUMPUR (March 16): MWE Holdings Bhd said it had today received a privatisation offer from Pinjaya Sdn Bhd at RM1.75 a share. Pinjaya, owned by Tan Sri Surin Upatkoon, said it plans to privatise diversified entity MWE to have greater flexibility to execute MWE's long-term business strategy.  

MWE told Bursa Malaysia today it had received Pinjaya's letter in which Pinjaya requested MWE to undertake a selective capital reduction and repayment (SCR) exercise. 

MWE said: "The proposed SCR involves MWE undertaking a selective capital reduction and a corresponding capital repayment of a proposed cash amount of RM1.75 per ordinary share in MWE held by all the shareholders of MWE (other than the non-entitled shareholders as defined in the SCR offer letter), whose names appear in the record of depositors of MWE, as at the close of business on an entitlement date to be determined and announced by the board," MWE said.

Pinjaya said in its letter that the company and parties acting in concert already owned an estimated 32.62% stake in MWE comprising 75.1 million shares. Surin is the ultimate offeror under the SCR, the letter added. 

Under the proposed SCR, Pinjaya said entitled shareholders, who collectively own up to 158.13 million MWE shares will receive a capital repayment of up to RM276.73 million in cash or RM1.75 a share.

At RM1.75, the proposed SCR values MWE at about RM408.15 million, based on the company's issued base of some 233.23 million shares. MWE's latest reported net assets per share stood at RM2.77.

MWE's share trade has been suspended since 9am today in conjunction with the announcement. Trading resumes at 2:30pm today. Prior to the suspension, MWE shares closed at RM1.30 yesterday. 

According to MWE's website, the company's businesses include garment manufacturing, property development and distribution of commercial trucks.