Late rejection leaves a stale taste to KFC offers

WHILE the albeit brief bidding war for QSR Brands Bhd caused a lot of excitement in the market over the past two weeks, it has also highlighted an unsavoury aspect of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) involving listed companies. Here's the problem: Kulim did not act as quickly as it should have, leaving the market to believe that a deal was on the cards when in fact, Kulim had no intention of selling. That sets a bad precedent.

To recap, recently three bids were made for QSR Brands (that owns KFC Holdings Bhd) and on each occasion, all the three companies involved Kulim, which owns QSR, which owns KFC were suspended. (Idaman Saga made two bids, the first one on its own and its second one with two other parties. The Carlyle Group made the other bid.)