The parent of Kingboard Copper Foil Holdings has tabled an unconditional cash offer to take the mainboard-listed company private.
A unit of Kingboard Laminates, which is 72.59 per cent owned by Hong Hong-listed Kingboard Chemical Holdings, is offering 40 cents apiece to acquire all the remaining shares of Kingboard Copper that it does not already own.
The offer represents a premium of 17.6 per cent of Kingboard Copper's last-traded price of 34 cents on Monday before the company asked for a trading halt pending an announcement.
The premium works out to 49.1 per cent of the shares' volume-weighted average price over the past 12 months.
However, this may not assuage long-suffering shareholders, some of whom have been holding onto the shares they had subscribed for at the initial public offering price of 53 cents apiece in 1999.
But this offer is far better than a previous attempt in 2009 when Kingboard Laminates offered to buy the rest of Kingboard Copper through a cash offer, share swap or combination of both.
Kingboard Copper shareholders then could either choose to receive 21 cents in cash or accept 0.374 of a new Kingboard Laminates share in exchange for one Kingboard Copper share.
That buyout offer failed after it was voted down by Kingboard Copper shareholders.
Religare Capital Markets Corporate Finance, which is acting on behalf of the offeror, said in a statement yesterday that the current offer gives shareholders "an opportunity to realise their investment in the company for a cash consideration at a premium above the historical market share prices, without incurring any brokerage and other trading costs".
The offeror intends to delist and privatise Kingboard Copper.
"The delisting of the company will eliminate listing-related expenses which can be channelled towards its business operations," the statement noted.
Kingboard Copper has fallen on hard times. Last month, the group reported a full-year net profit of HK$1.1 million (S$200,680) for the year ended Dec 31, down 62.65 per cent from the previous year. Revenue was marginally up at HK$635.3 million.
The Kingboard Chemical group has business activities ranging from manufacture and sale of laminates, printed circuit boards, chemicals, liquid crystal displays and magnetic products, and property development and investment.
