Tengku Abdullah raises bid for Tanah Makmur shares

PETALING JAYA: Tanah Makmur Bhd’s major shareholder Tengku Mahkota of Pahang Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, who has proposed to privatisate the firm, has raised the offer price to RM1.90 from RM1.80 previously.

The latest offer price represents a premium of 10.5% over its last trading price of RM1.72 prior to the suspension yesterday. Trading in the securities of Tanah Makmur was suspended yesterday, pending the announcement. Year-to-date, Tanah Makmur shares have gone up close to 23%.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the plantation and property development player said the upward revision represented a 29.25% premium to its closing price on April 22, 2016 prior to the announcement of its corporate exercise.

In April, Tengku Abdullah and parties acting in concert, who collectively had 68.08% as at Oct 24, 2016, proposed a privatisation exercise via a selective capital reduction (SCR) to buy out the remainder stake they don’t own at RM1.80 a share.

Tengku Abdullah owns a 12.77% stake in the company.

Under the proposed SCR, Tanah Makmur will reduce the par value of its shares from 50 sen to 25 sen, thus creating an additional share premium reserve.

A bonus issue has also been proposed, as the number of Tanah Makmur shares to be cancelled is higher than the existing issued and paid-up capital.