Family behind loss-making firm ups bid to take it private

The family controlling loss-making Internet Technology Group has upped the ante in its bid to delist the company from the Singapore Exchange mainboard.

The firm's group executive chairman and chief executive officer George Goh, together with his brothers Steven Goh and Joe Goh, raised their exit offer from 12.7 cents per share to 13.8 cents per share on Thursday night.

Mr Steven Goh is an executive director and Mr Joe Goh is a non-executive and non-independent director at the firm, which is an investment holding company that holds stakes in firms including jobs directory JobsDB and business directory publisher Promedia.

The brothers are making their offer to take the company private through a vehicle called WLH Holdings, which they set up in September this year for that sole purpose.

WLH and Internet Technology Group told the SGX in a joint filing in September that Internet Technology Group no longer required access to capital markets.

In fact, it "has not raised any funds from the capital markets since its initial public offer in July 2000", they noted.

Internet Technology Group posted a loss of $226,000 for the six months ended June 30 this year, a reversal of the $1.4 million profit the preceding year. Revenue for the half year also tumbled 24.9 per cent to $5.8 million.

Its share price was 13.2 cents as at around 4.30pm on Friday,

Before that, the thinly traded stock was last traded on Tuesday with 21,000 shares changing hands. It closed at 12.5 cents that day.

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