COMPLETED disposal. Hume Cemboard (HCB) (RM4.38) has recently completed the disposal of its building material business to Hume Industries (RM2.54). The sale consideration of RM310mil cash works out to almost RM5 per HCB share, assuming enlarged capital based on the full exercise of existing employees share option scheme. This is also more than 95% of the proforma NTA (net tangible asset) of RM5.29 per share based on December 2002 figures.
Seeking new core business. As it stands now, HCB is essentially a cash-rich listing shell with no core business, and is hence in breach of Practice Note 10/2001 (PN 10) due to inadequate level of operations (no announcement as yet). HCB has earlier proposed to return RM4 cash per share to shareholders, but the Securities Commission (SC) has declined to consider the proposal until HCB submits a detailed plan to comply with PN 10. In the interim, the entire RM310mil proceeds have been placed with a financial institution as fixed deposit until its eventual utilisation is approved by SC.
