PETALING JAYA: The market is rife with rumours of a pending corporate exercise involving Johor property counter Tebrau Teguh Bhd, giving its share price a boost.
In early trade yesterday, the stock went up five sen to RM1.49 but retreated to close at RM1.43 on a volume of some 6.6 million shares. Still, it is up close to 15% since the beginning of the month, outpacing the broader market which is up by 3%.
The market rumours included the possibility that Tebrau could be made a privatisation candidate by its major shareholder Tan Sri Lim Kang Hoo.
Last year, Lim, who controls Tebrau via Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH), had triggered a mandatory general offer for the company after he bought an additional 33.15% of shares from Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor Sdn Bhd (KPRJ), bringing his stake to 47.16%.
He had paid RM168.7mil or 76 sen per share then and said he intended to maintain the listing status of Tebrau.
KPRJ currently still owns 8% of Tebrau.
Assuming that Lim now wants to buy out minorities at the current price of RM1.43, he would have to fork out about RM500mil.
However, banking sources said that it might be challenging for Lim to raise the funding required for such a buyout.
Meanwhile, other sources reckoned that Tebrau is in focus because it is close to inking a deal to dispose some of its prized Johor land to a major Malaysian property developer.
As at June last year, the company had about 408ha of undeveloped land in Iskandar Malaysia.
Another possibility is that Lim could be looking to embark on a fund-raising exercise aimed at raising money to carry out property development projects on those parcels of land.
Lim, who is the executive vice-chairman of Tebrau, controls IWH via Credence Resources Sdn Bhd.
IWH is the master developer of several developments including Danga Bay, Iskandar Waterfront and the central business district of Johor. Its 1,619ha forms part of Iskandar Malaysia’s 221,707ha.
Initially slated for a listing in the fourth quarter, IWH’s impending listing which is expected to raise up to RM3bil, has likely been delayed to the first half of next year, according to recent reports.
For the first six months to June 30, Tebrau made a net profit of RM5.56mil or 0.83 sen per share on a revenue of RM96mil against a net profit of RM1.78mil or 0.26 sen per share on a revenue of RM58.7mil for the same period a year earlier.
In notes accompanying its most recent quarterly results, Tebrau said the group had “greater optimism” on its performance this year, especially in respect to property development activities as it expects to launch its new product, The Botanica@Bayu Puteri.
The development is expected to comprise three towers of 792 apartment units and three blocks of 54 townhouse units, with an expected gross development value of RM488mil.
– THE STAR
