Major shareholder of Goh Ban Huat exits company

Major shareholder sells 51% in ceramic maker to Paragon Adventure for RM145.7mil

PETALING JAYA: The major shareholder of Goh Ban Huat Bhd (GBH), Tan Sri Robert Tan Hua Choon, has exited the company.

In an off-market transaction yesterday, Tan disposed of a 51% stake in the ceramic manufacturer to Paragon Adventure Sdn Bhd for RM145.7mil or RM1.40 per share.

Paragon Adventure, a property company, will make an offer for the rest of the shares it does not own in GBH in a mandatory general offer.

Apart from the shares which was transacted at RM1.40 each, the warrants were also sold at 40 sen each.

Prior to the transaction, Tan, better known as ‘casio king’, owned a 63.82% stake in GBH, the company’s annual report showed.

Tan first made his entry into GBH in 2006 with a 10.8% interest. He raised it to 30.5% in January 2008. At that time, the Goh brothers were in control of GBH.

In June 2009, Tan launched a general offer for the rest of the shares he did not own in GBH at RM1.25 each. He ended up with more than 60% in the company that had a net asset value of RM2.25 then.

Paragon’s offer of RM1.40 per share represents a marginal dis- count of 2% to the last traded price of GBH at RM1.43 on Tuesday.

“The shares offer price and warrants offer price were arrived at after taking into consideration, among others, the historical market prices of GBH shares and warrants,” the takeover offer notice from Maybank Investment Bank, issued on behalf of Paragon Adventure, read.

“The offer is not conditional upon any minimum level of acceptances of the offer shares,” it added.

Paragon Adventure intends to maintain the listing status of GBH on Bursa Malaysia, it noted.

Paragon Adventure is an investment holding company owned by Datuk Seri Edwin Tan (65%) and Datuk Seri Godwin Tan (35%), both of whom are active in property development in Johor.

As at end-June 2017, GBH’s net assets per share stood at RM1.29.

The group returned to the black with a net profit of RM445,000, or 0.24 sen per share, for the first quarter ended June 30, 2017. This is compared with a net loss of RM715,000, or 0.38 sen per share, in the corresponding period last year.

During the quarter in review, the group saw its revenue decline 64% to RM4.79mil from RM13.25mil in the previous corresponding period. This was due in part to the ceasing of its manufacturing segment and lower contribution from the trading division as a result of decreased sale from sanitaryware due to the softening property market.

The group expected the outlook for the sanitaryware business to remain challenging for the rest of the financial year ending March 31, 2018.

This is due to the weak ringgit, which would increase the cost of purchase, and slow demand from the sluggish property market.