7-Eleven receives valid acceptance of 90.58% stake in Caring Pharmacy

PETALING JAYA: 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd’s mandatory general offer (MGO) for Caring Pharmacy Group Bhd at RM2.60 apiece has reached a valid acceptance level of 90.58%.

With that, trading in Caring shares will be suspended five market days after the close of the offer, as 7-Eleven did not intend to maintain the listing status of Caring. The offer is open for acceptances until 5pm on March 27.

“Thereafter, the offeror and ultimate offeror will procure Caring to take the requisite steps to withdraw its listing status from the official list in accordance with Paragraph 16.07 of the Listing Requirements,” said Caring in a filing with the stock exchange.

In accordance with Section 223(2) of the Capital Markets and Services Act (CMSA), the offeror will also issue a notice to the dissenting holders of Caring to inform them that they may exercise their rights under Section 223(1) of the CMSA, for the offeror to acquire the offer shares on the same terms as set out in the offer document.

“Accordingly, the notice will be despatched to the dissenting holders within one month from March 13, 2020, being the date the offeror, ultimate offeror and parties acting in concert having acquired not less than 166.37 million Caring shares under the modified approach.”

To recap, 7-Eleven’s MGO for the remaining shares it does not own in Caring was triggered after 7-Eleven’s wholly owned subsidiary Convenience Shopping (Sabah) Sdn Bhd and the parties acting in concert proposed to acquire a 25.35% stake in Caring last November, which increased their collective shareholding to 38.57%.

As at Nov 30, 2019, Caring has a total of 132 community pharmacies and a clinic. The group has embarked on a five-year transformation plan with an objective to exceed RM1 billion in revenue and a vision to have 200 outlets across all cities and major towns in Malaysia by 2024.