SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Broadway Industrial Group on Nov 17 received a draft binding letter of intent from a potential buyer to acquire its hard disk drive business.

At the time, the company was "confident" an agreement would follow, and thus requested a trading halt on Nov 18 morning to prevent any unusual trading activity which may result from any potential leaks of a possible transaction.

However, further negotiations with the potential buyer were required, and thus no binding agreement has been reached yet, Broadway Industrial said in a bourse filing on Sunday night.

The mainboard-listed precision manufacturer added that it remains in negotiations with the potential buyer for a possible transaction.

Broadway Industrial lifted the trading halt on Monday before market open. The stock rose 0.1 cent or 0.8 per cent to trade at 12.2 cents as at 11.25am, after 7.6 million shares changed hands.

On May 28, the company announced it had entered into a non-binding indicative proposal to dispose of the hard disk drive business by selling its wholly-owned subsidiary BIGL Asia. This drove its shares to surge by 24.5 per cent the next day.

Broadway Industrial did not disclose the interested party's identity, but said the potential buyer intends to retain BIGL Asia's key management and technical staff.

Broadway Industrial had initially planned to execute the sale and purchase agreement by Nov 15 and to complete the sale by Dec 30.

On Sunday, it said that the group's strategic review to diversify and expand its existing business and to unlock shareholders' value remains an ongoing process.

The company will make further announcements to update shareholders of any material developments in relation to the strategic review, including those for the possible transaction.