KUALA LUMPUR (June 4): Shares in Lafarge Malaysia Bhd (LMB) slipped 0.27% in active trade this morning after its independent adviser AmInvestment Bank Bhd said the mandatory takeover offer by YTL Corp Bhd’s 98%-owned unit YTL Cement Bhd’s is not fair and not reasonable and recommended LMB’s minority shareholders to reject the offer.

At 10.29am, LMB shares were down by one sen to RM3.74, with a market capitalisation of RM3.19 billion.

With a total turnover of 5.42 million shares, LMB came in seventeenth on Bursa Malaysia's top active list at the time of writing.

In its independent advice circular filed with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, AmInvestment Bank said the offer was not fair because the offer price of RM3.75 represents a discount of between 2.2% and 18.5% over the fair values of between RM3.83 and RM4.60 per Lafarge Malaysia share.

AmInvestment Bank also opined it is not fair as the current low market price of Lafarge Malaysia’s shares since May 2018, was due to suspension announcements of the infrastructure projects, notably the East Coast Rail Link, Mass Rapid Transit 2 and 3, and the Bandar Malaysia project, for which the group was one of the key suppliers.

Meanwhile, the bank is of the view that the offer is not reasonable due to YTL Cement’s intention to maintain Lafarge Malaysia’s listing — unless the former or its associates hold more than 90% of Lafarge Malaysia shares, which will result in the group not complying with the public spread requirement.