Pacific Century says it can repurchase shares during validity period of mandate

PACIFIC Century Regional Developments on Tuesday said that the company is permitted under its share purchase mandate approved by shareholders on April 24, 2015 to repurchase shares from time to time during the validity period of the share purchase mandate.

The company had on June 10, 2015 said the above in a response to an open letter sent by Ascapia Capital on May 26, 2015.

"As disclosed in the circular to shareholders dated April 7, 2015, the share purchase mandate would not be carried out to such an extent that would result in the company being delisted from the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd and that the company must ensure that there is at all times a public float of not less than 10 per cent of its issued shares (excluding treasury shares) in order to maintain the listing status of the company's shares," said Pacific Century in the response to Ascapia Capital.

The company also reiterated in its response that it was not aware of, and has not received, any proposal in relation to the privatisation of the company, and that it was not aware of any restructuring plans involving the company and its subsidiaries.

Ascapia portfolio manager Wesley Widjaja had noted in the May 26 letter that Pacific Century had been "aggressively buying back its shares over the past few weeks" and appeared to be headed for privatisation. He added that minority shareholders "are often ignored during the delisting process" and "often lack the resources to dispute the outcome, even though they have received an inequitable bargain", and asked the board to consider offering minorities a "truly fair price" for their shareholdings.