SINGAPORE - Osim International has decided to make up to shareholders who sold their shares below the final offer price of S$1.39 per share in a trading bungle two weeks ago.

On April 5, an error in Osim chief executive Ron Sim's attempt to buy out the firm led to some shares being bought back at a price between S$1.38 and S$1.39 - higher than the S$1.37 offer then.

Vision Three, the investment vehicle Mr Sim is using for the takeover bid, has since raised the offer price to S$1.39, or S$1.41 inclusive of a two-cent final dividend.

These affected shareholders "may not have had the opportunity to receive the equivalent of the final ex-dividend offer price of S$1.39 in respect of those shares," Credit Suisse (Singapore) said on behalf of Vision Three.

"In view of this, the offeror will make a payment (the additional payment) on a goodwill basis to all shareholders who sold their shares on the SGX-ST on April 5 at a transacted sale price below S$1.39."

The additional payment will be made to all affected shareholders, regardless of whether they sold their shares to the offeror or to third parties, Osim said in a filing to SGX on Monday (April 18).

Each affected shareholder will receive the difference between the transacted sale price for each share and the final ex-dividend offer price, it said.

The payments will be made through the Central Depository and further details will be communicated to affected shareholders directly.

Securities Investors Association Singapore president David Gerald welcomed the decision.

"Not all of us are expecting such a swift response, so this is a nice surprise. We thank Mr Sim's decision to compensate the affected minority shareholders," he told The Straits Times.

"I also hope that such incident won't happen again. But this was a very rare error - in fact the first time in my 16 years at SIAS."