IWC minority shareholders urged to accept takeover offer

The chief executive of one victim, depositor Saigonbank Berjaya Securities JSC (SBBS) - a unit of Malaysia's Berjaya Corporation Bhd - told Reuters that if the ruling was upheld, she had little hope of recouping her bank's $10 million from the perpetrator, who was sentenced to life imprisonment. "We can't afford to lose the case. This represents 70 percent of our capital. Our business may get suspended," Josephine Yei said in an interview.

PETALING JAYA: BDO Capital Consultants Sdn Bhd, the independent adviser to Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd’s (IWC) minority shareholders, has advised them to accept the takeover offer from Ekovest Bhd at RM1.50 per share.

Last December, Ekovest said it has proposed to undertake a conditional voluntary general offer to acquire all the offer shares in IWC at RM1.50 per share. The consideration of the offer shares will be satisfied via cash or share exchange options.

In a circular to minority shareholders filed with Bursa Malaysia Thursday, BDO had advised and recommended that shareholders to accept the offer.

“Based on our evaluation, we are of the opinion that the cash option is not fair but reasonable whilst the share exchange option is fair and reasonable to the holders,” BDO said in the circular. 

The independent adviser said the share exchange option was more favourable due to the exchange ratio of more than one ranging from 1.26 to 1.33.

An exchanging ratio of more than one indicates that the holders are effectively receiving Ekovest shares which are higher in terms of a fair value than IWC shares to be surrendered, BDO said. 

“The IWC shares have not traded above the offer price for the past three years prior to the March 15, 2018 (LPD), except during the Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH) proposed merger scheme period,

“Additionally, the offer price represents a premium of approximately 7 sen, or 4.9% over the closing price of IWC shares as at LPD,” BDO said. 

It noted that the average daily volume traded of Ekovest shares as a percentage over free float of about 43.72% for the past 12 months is higher than the average daily volume traded of IWC shares for the same period of about 13.79%.