fnhovid 13 - Hovid's products on display at one of its pharmacy outlet in Ipoh.
KUALA LUMPUR: Hovid managing director and largest shareholder David Ho Sue San and Asean-focused private equity group TAEL Partners have announced plan to take the pharmaceutical firm private by offering 38 sen per share - a level not seen on Bursa Malaysia for almost a year.
Together with the offer of 20 sen per outstanding warrant, Ho and TAEL Partners (through special-purpose vehicle Fajar Astoria Sdn Bhd) are ready to fork out RM243.12mil in cash if their bid is successful.
The offer price for the remaining shares represented a premium of 20.55% to the adjusted five-day volume-weighted average market price (VWAP) of the shares until Oct 6.
As for the warrants (which allows the holder to subscribe to a new share each during the exercise period expiring June 5, 2018, at an exercise price of 18 sen per share), the offer price stood at a premium of 45.02% to the five-day VWAP until Oct 6.
Ho, who currently holds an equity interest of 33.72% in Hovid plus 43.57% of its warrants, and his joint offeror Fajar Astoria do not intend to maintain the listing status of the Ipoh-based pharmaceutical company.
The offer is conditional on the joint offerors receiving at least 90% of the offer shares excluding the ones held by persons acting in concert. If that happened, the company would take the requisite steps to withdraw its listing status, the joint offerors said in the takeover notice.
They will keep the offer open for acceptances until 5pm on the 21st day of the offer document’s posting date.
Hovid shares were suspended from trading on Monday to make way for the announcement and will resume trading on Tuesday. The counter last traded at 32 sen last Friday.
Hovid went through a challenging period in the financial year ended June 30, 2017 (FY17), sinking into an unaudited loss of RM1.53mil versus earnings of RM17.9mil in FY16. This marked its first annual loss in six years.
Hovid attributed the poorer result to the disruption in its manufacturing activities arising from the temporary revocation of its manufacturing licences earlier this year.
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