33. WEN CHIU CHI AND FAMILY Flagship: Selangor Properties Bhd Net Worth: RM1.3bil.

KAYIN Holdings Sdn Bhd, the vehicle of the Wen family, is looking to privatise Selangor Properties Bhd (SPB) at RM6.30 per share through a selectival capital reduction (SCR) and repayment exercise.

The price of RM6.30 is a revised takeover price, and while a lot higher than the RM5.70 first proposed, it is still below its book value of some RM7.17.

The Wen family, that owns 68.23% of SPB via its investment vehicle Kayin Holdings, raised its proposed SCR and repayment offer price by 30 sen for the second time earlier this year.

The plan to privatise the property company was announced on Oct 25, 2018 at RM5.70 per share. Less than two months later on Dec 17, the Wen family upped its offer price to RM6.

Just a month before that announcement, the matriarch of SPB, Puan Sri Chook Yew Chong Wen, passed away in September 2018. She was 98.

Chiu Chi, 62, the third among Chook’s four children, assumed the position of executive chairman. He was previously the managing director.

SPB is one of the oldest property companies on Bursa Malaysia.

Chook’s husband, the late Tan Sri Dr Wen Tien Kuang founded the company with her in 1963. Tien Kuang passed away in 2000.

Kayin said the decision to privatise the group via the capital reduction and repayment exercise would provide the group with greater flexibility to manage and develop its businesses and undertake corporate exercises which may otherwise require lengthy shareholder and regulatory approvals.

To recap, the proposed exercise is expected to be funded via the company’s internally generated funds and/or bank facilities to be obtained by SPB.

SPB, the major developer of Pusat Bandar Damansara in Kuala Lumpur back in the 1980s, owns several properties in Malaysia and Australia.

According to its annual report, the total book value of its properties in Malaysia – which include several plots of prime land and office buildings in Damansara Heights and Bukit Tunku in Kuala Lumpur – stood at RM1.24bil as of Oct 31, 2017.

SPB owns two properties in Claremont, Australia, with a cumulative book value of RM190.4mil.