KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 3): Unisem (M) Bhd will be submitting an application to Bursa Malaysia to seek an extension of time to comply with the 25% public spread requirement, which has fallen below the threshold, following  a recent takeover of the company.

In a bourse filing today, Unisem said as at December 31, 2018, the joint offerors owned 546.93 million Unisem shares representing approximately 75.22% of the issued share capital of Unisem. Correspondingly, the public shareholding spread based on the record of depositors of the company is 22.686%.

As set out in the offer document, the joint offerors intend to maintain the listing status of Unisem on Bursa Malaysia. To rectify the situation, the joint offerors will procure Tianshui Huatian Electronics Group Co Ltd via Huatian Electronics Group (HK) Ltd (HT Hong Kong) and Tianshui Huatian Technology Co Ltd (TSHT) via Huatian Technology (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (HT Malaysia), to comply with the requirement.

In September, the Unisem board received a conditional voluntary takeover offer for the semiconductor firm from its controlling shareholder and executive chairman/managing director John Chia and China's TSHT.

The bid is made by HT Hong Kong and HT Malaysia on behalf of TSHT and its holding company Tianshui Huatian Electronics Group Co Ltd.

Under the takeover, the joint offerors had proposed to pay RM1.82 billion in total or RM3.30 per share for the 75.72% shareholding in the company not owned by them or parties acting in concert.

John, his son Alexander Chia Jhet-Wern, and John's private vehicles, Jayvest Holdings Sdn Bhd and SCQ Industries Sdn Bhd, have inked a collaboration agreement with TSHT for the takeover offer.

The agreement stipulates that the stake held by TSHT will always be at least 10% larger than that held by John, who together with his family members collectively own 24.28% of the company.

Unisem's shares closed down 1 sen or 0.3% to RM3.28 for a market capitalisation of RM2.385 billion.