KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 3): Lay Hong Bhd will be applying to Bursa Malaysia for an extension of six months from Oct 2, 2014 to March 31, 2015, for the company to comply with the 25% public shareholding spread requirement under Bursa’s listing regulations.

In a filing today, Lay Hong said it is not in compliance with the public shareholding spread requirement pursuant to Paragraph 8.02(1) of the main market listing requirements.

"Based on the record of depositors of Lay Hong as at Oct 1, 2014, the public shareholding spread of Lay Hong is 23.31%.

"The percentage represents a shortfall of 1.69% from the minimum required percentage of 25% of the total listed shares (excluding treasury shares) to be in the hands of public shareholders," the filing read.

It is understood that Lay Hong failing to comply with the requirement was due to QL acquiring the company's shares recently.

QL has launched a takeover offer for Lay Hong at RM3.50 a share. According to recent filings to Bursa, QL has been purchasing Lay Hong shares from the open market and raised its holdings to 15.72 million shares or a 31.4% stake as at Oct 2.

The founding Yap’s family of Lay Hong meanwhile, controlled some 44.45% of the layer faming outfit as at Aug 5, 2014.

As of 4pm, Lay Hong remained unchanged at RM3.50, with 849,100 units traded. QL, on the other hand, rose as much as 1 sen to RM3.41, with 414,300 shares done.