KUALA LUMPUR (July 15): Shares in Cycle & Carriage Bintang Bhd (CCB) were up 12 sen or 4.69% to RM2.68 in the morning trading session on Friday (July 15), as investors reacted to Jardine Cycle & Carriage Ltd's (Jardine CCL) third attempt to privatise CCB at a higher offer price of RM2.70 a share, compared with RM2.40 in its previous offer last year.
As at 10.31am, the stock was ranked fourth among the local bourse's top gainers, having seen 172,700 shares traded so far in the day.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia on Thursday, CCB said it had received a notice for an unconditional voluntary takeover offer from Jardine CCL — which already owned 90.66 million shares or a 89.994% stake in CCB as at Tuesday — to buy the remaining 10.08 million shares in the company.
This values the offer at RM27.22 million based on the price of RM2.70 per share.
The notice, issued by CIMB Investment Bank Bhd (CIMB IB) on behalf of Jardine CCL, said the new offer price is at a premium ranging from 2.34% to 20.75% above the market price and the volume-weighted average market price of CCB.
It also represents a 12.5% increase over the previous offer of RM2.40, the bank noted.
CIMB IB said Jardine CCL made the latest offer because there is uncertainty in complying with Bursa’s 25% public shareholding spread requirement. CCB’s public shareholding spread stood at 10.006%.
The bank said a successful delisting would allow Jardine CCL and CCB to dispense with the compliance costs associated with maintaining the Mercedes-Benz dealer’s listing status. Jardine CCL does not intend to maintain CCB’s listing status.
Jardine CCL did not succeed in its takeover offer last year as it only managed to raise its shareholding to 88.04%, from 66.47%, even after the offer’s deadline was extended three times.
Jardine CCL's first attempt to privatise CCB in November 2019 was via a proposed selective capital reduction (SCR) and repayment exercise at RM2.20 per share.
At that time, minority shareholders blocked the privatisation, with more than 10% of disinterested shareholders, including listed company Muar Ban Lee Group Bhd, voting against the SCR.