KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 7): Oversea Enterprise Bhd's (OEB) share price rose as much as 17.5 sen or 55.56% after the Chinese restaurant operator received a takeover offer from Datuk Chai Woon Chet, the managing director and a substantial shareholder of Anzo Holdings Bhd.

OEB shares jumped to their all-time high of 49 sen, which was 63.33% higher than the takeover offer price of 30 sen made by Chai. 

At 11.50am, the stock had pared gains to 41 sen, still up by 9.5 sen or 30.16% compared with yesterday’ closing price of 31.5 sen. Some 9.87 million shares were traded, about 34 times its 200-day average trading volume of 276,385.5 shares.

Yesterday, OEB told the stock exchange that Chai on the same day entered into a sale and purchase agreement with five parties to buy the stake, comprising 151.26 million shares or a 62.37% stake in the company, for a cash consideration of RM45.37 million. 

The vendors are Yu Soo Chye @ Yee Soo Chye, Yu Tack Tein, Simple Angel Capital Sdn Bhd, Lee Lim & Sons Sdn Bhd and Khong Yik Kam. 

The acquisition has triggered a mandatory takeover offer (MTO), which means that Chai has to acquire all the remaining shares not held by him. However, Chai intends to keep OEB listed on the trading bourse.

OEB, which was listed on Bursa Malaysia’s ACE Market on April 1, 2010, has been loss-making for six financial years. It incurred a net loss of RM324,000 for FY10, RM4.51 million for FY13, RM3.09 million for FY16, RM4.86 million for FY18, RM4.55 million for FY19 and RM5.46 million for FY20 (the financial year ended March 31, 2020) — the largest annual loss so far.

Revenue for the group has also been on a downtrend for the past few years — from RM62.37 million for FY15 to RM61.06 million for FY16, RM60.04 million for FY17, RM58.52 million for FY18, RM55.21 million for FY19 and RM51.79 million for FY20. 

Its net asset value per share stood at 20 sen as at March 31, 2020.