KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 25): Tanah Makmur Bhd's major shareholder, the Tengku Mahkota of Pahang Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, has upped his takeover offer for the company to RM1.90 apiece from RM1.80 earlier. The revised terms value Tanah Makmur at RM756.5 million.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the property-cum-plantation player said Tengku Abdullah and the parties in concert collectively hold 271.06 million shares or a 68.08% stake in Tanah Makmur as at Oct 24, 2016. Of this total, Tengku Abdullah owns 50.84 million or 12.77% of Tanah Makmur shares.
 
According to the company, the revised takeover offer represents a premium of 29.25% and 34.08% to Tanah Makmur's last closing share price and five-day volume weighted average market price including April 22, respectively.

The latest offer price of RM1.90 per share, it added, was 1.78 times over its price to book value and is higher than its net asset per share of RM1.07 as at Dec 31, 2015.

In term of price to earnings ratio (PER), Tanah Makmur said the offer price represents 14.04 times over its PER, while its earnings per share was 13.53 sen.

On April 25, Tengku Abdullah had proposed to privatise the company by way of a selective capital reduction (SCR) and repayment exercise at RM1.80 apiece. At that time, he owned a 12.77% stake in the company.

Under the proposed SCR, Tanah Makmur will reduce the par value of its shares from 50 sen to 25 sen, thus creating additional share premium reserve. A bonus issue was also proposed, as the number of Tanak Makmur shares to be cancelled is higher than the existing issued capital.

On completion of the proposed SCR, all Tanah Makmur shares held by the entitled shareholders would be cancelled and they would receive RM1.80 per share, or a total repayment of RM285.13 million. Tanah Makmur would then apply for a de-listing.

Tengku Abdullah had said then the proposed SCR gave entitled shareholders the opportunity to realise their investments in Tanah Makmur at a premium ranging from 22.45% to 30% over the market prices over a six-month period to April 22.

Tanah Makmur was listed less than two years ago on July 17, 2014, at an initial public offering price of RM1.25, after which it was traded beyond RM1.80 for just over two months.

Tanah Makmur’s counter was suspended from trading today. Prior to that, it was up one sen or 0.58% to settle at RM1.72, for a market value of RM684.83 million.

It will resume trading tomorrow.