Aug 10 2012, 04:30 PM
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — In a volte face, the Securities Commission (SC) will now order Sime Darby Bhd to make a general offer for Eastern & Oriental Bhd (E&O) shares after buying a 30-per cent stake last year, say government sources.
The Malaysian Insider understands the decision was made after a review by the leadership under new SC chairman Datuk Ranjit Ajit Singh.
“The SC has reviewed the matter and decided to overturn the earlier decision made when Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar was the chairman,” a government source told The Malaysian Insider.
Ranjit, who was the SC managing director, took over as chairman after Zarinah ended her term last March 31.
Another source confirmed the review and said the decision will be made public soon.
Sime Darby purchased its controlling 30 per cent interest in the property developer from three major shareholders — managing director Datuk Terry Tham, Singapore’s GK Goh Holdings and a group of investors led by businessman Tan Sri Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah — at the end of August last year in a deal that valued E&O shares at RM2.30 a piece.
The purchase price represented a 60 per cent premium over the value of the shares in the company on the open market when the deal was announced.
The RM776 million deal triggered unease over the widely-perceived coddling by the agency of large state-controlled companies at the expense of minority shareholders when exercising its authority on corporate takeovers.
The SC ruled six weeks after Sime Darby’s purchase of the three blocks that the plantation-based conglomerate need not make a general offer, prompting E&O minority shareholder Michael Chow to sue the SC for failing to compel Sime Darby to make a general offer for the rest of the shares.
The legal suit has renewed debate over the SC’s handling of alleged irregular trading activities and had put pressure on Zarinah, whose husband — the E&O chairman — had raised his personal stock holdings in the company just weeks before Sime Darby announced the acquisition.
The SC has also filed an application to recuse the judge hearing the suit as he used to be with the regulator. But the judge dismissed the application, only for the SC to file an appeal with the Court of Appeal, which heard the case yesterday.
Singapore’s Straits Times reported last January that a SC task force found that Sime Darby was obliged to make a general offer for E&O shares after acquiring a 30 per but was superseded by the regulator’s top ruling authority.
The daily reported that the task force was of the view that a general offer obligation had been triggered as a new “concert party” was created between Sime Darby and Tham, who jointly controlled more than 33 per cent in the property concern after the deal.
Malaysia’s takeover rules stipulate that any party that acquires more than a 33 per cent interest in a publicly-listed entity must carry out a general offer for the remaining shares.
A general offer can also be triggered if a new party buys less than 33 per cent but secures management control of the target company.
But the SC’s final ruling three-member committee adjudged “in a majority decision” that there was no general offer obligation as Sime Darby and Tham were not acting in concert, according to an affidavit by the agency’s second-most senior commissioner Datuk Francis Tan, which was sighted by the Singapore daily.
The committee also accepted the task force’s recommendation that the three groups that sold the blocks of E&O shares to Sime Darby did not collectively control the company and that the disposal did not trigger a general offer.
STOCK MARKET DISCUSSION V124, Seems like no one want this 124...
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Sime really like E&O, willing pay high price
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