StemLife not planning to address public spread shortfall

Cryo containers that store umbilical cord blood and bone marrow samples at the private cord blood bank StemLife Bhd in Kuala Lumpur. The cylinders are filled with liquid nitrogen.

KUALA LUMPUR: Cord blood bank StemLife Bhd, which its 89.88% shareholder Cordlife Group Ltd plans to take private, has made no effort to devise a plan to comply with the public shareholding spread requirement.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia on Thursday, the company said this was because the Dec 3, 2015 offer document had stated that if Cordlife’s shareholding in StemLife reached 75% or more, Cordlife did not plan to maintain the latter’s listing status or to address any shortfall to meet the public spread requirement.

“No rectification plan has been formulated and no endeavours have been taken to formulate such a plan as the offeror does not intend to address any shortfall to meet the public spread requirement,” it said.

As at Feb 5, the public shareholding spread of StemLife was 10.1114%, with a total of 802 public shareholders.

Singapore-listed Cordlife Group Ltd had twice extended the closing date of its takeover offer of StemLife Bhd but did not manage to hit the 90% shareholding threshold to compulsorily acquire the remaining shares as at the final deadline on Feb 2.

Cordlife, which announced its takeover plan on Nov 12 last year and posted its offer document on Dec 3, did not change the offer price of 45 sen per 10 sen share or other terms and conditions each time it extended the closing date for acceptances.

Mercury Securities Sdn Bhd, in an independent advice circular to the shareholders dated Dec 14, 2015, had said that the offer was fair and reasonable.

See also Several options open for Cordlife after failed takeover of StemLife