Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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ABRIC Bhd’s share price rallied after the disposal of its core business of manufacturing security sealing products for RM146 million to ESNT International Ltd, a wholly-owned unit of London-listed Essentra PLC. The selling price trumped ABRIC’s market capitalisation of RM74.6 million despite the stock appreciating 156.14% over the last one year to last Wednesday’s 72.5 sen close.

Gains were higher for the company-issued warrant ABRIC-WB, which more than tripled over the same period. ABRIC-WB has a one-to-one conversion ratio and expires in about 15 months on April 7, 2016. Interestingly, its strike price of 30 sen is the same as the special dividend that the company declared after the asset sale to ESNT.

At last Wednesday’s 40 sen close, ABRIC-WB was trading at a 3.4% discount to the underlying share.

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According to filings with Bursa Malaysia, some warrant holders chose to convert their securities into shares ahead of the entitlement date of the special dividend — Feb 6 — in order to be entitled to the payout. ABRIC will trade ex-dividend or without the entitlement to the special dividend on Jan 21.

Warrant holders are not entitled to the dividend payment, something that might affect the value of the securities. ABRIC-WB’s strike price is not adjusted for dividend payments but ABRIC’s share price will be adjusted as it trades ex-dividend.

As at Dec 16, ABRIC was considered a cash company, although the disposal was only partially completed then, filings show.

ABRIC’s managers intend to retain its listing status and have allocated RM50 million from the sale proceeds to acquire a new core business.

As with any cash company, the downside risk for the stock is if management spends all its cash acquiring value-destructive businesses, says Stockresearchasia.com, a portal that takes positions on the securities it features and which says investors should seek the assistance of a qualified and licensed financial adviser in making investment decisions. It is not listed as a licensed investment adviser on the Securities Commission Malaysia website.

According to Stockresearchasia.com, ABRIC’s fully diluted net cash per share is 78 sen while its fully diluted net asset value per share is 92 sen. ABRIC has RM121.93 million worth of net assets post-disposal of its core business with cash standing at RM109.9 million, says its posting dated Jan 6. 
 
No local research house actively tracks ABRIC. The company is deemed highly volatile, being ascribed 4 out of five points on the volatility scale by theedgemarkets.com, which also gave ABRIC 1.8 points out of three points on valuation and 1.7 points out of three points on fundamentals.


This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on January 12-18, 2015.

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