Founder to delist Advanced Integrated Manufacturing at 21 cents per share

THE founder of Advanced Integrated Manufacturing Corp Ltd (AIM) has proposed to take the group private at 21 cents per share in a voluntary delisting offer, 11 years after he first brought the company to list on the mainboard.

This follows a spate of delistings this year that included Eu Yan Sang, Sim Lian Group, and Tiger Airways.

The proposed offer price represents a 22.8 per cent premium to the last traded price of the stock on Nov 16 before a trading halt was imposed, and a 20.7 per cent premium to the one-month volume weighted average price.

Group founder, chairman and CEO Tan Kim Yong owns a total effective stake of 81.03 per cent.

Through Singapore-incorporated HAO Corp Pte Ltd as the offeror, he is proposing to make an exit offer for all the shares he does not already own at 21 cents per share in cash.

The offeror is 92.78 per cent owned by Dr Tan, and the rest are held by two brothers and the wife of one of the brothers.

Together with these shareholders who have irrevocably undertaken to vote in favour of the proposed delisting, the offeror now has control over 88.24 per cent stake in AIM.

Citing low liquidity of AIM shares and compliance costs of maintaining the listing, the offeror noted that AIM has no need for access to capital markets and that it has not carried out any fund-raising exercise on the capital markets in the last eight years.

There is, however, no intention by the offeror to make material changes to the group's existing business, redeploy its fixed assets or discontinue the employment of employees.

The group has appointed Stirling Coleman Capital Limited as the independent financial adviser to advise the directors who are considered independent for the purposes of the delisting proposal and the exit offer.

As at Thursday, the board of directors comprises Dr Tan, his brother and group executive director Tan Gim Seng, and two independent directors.