Singapore taxi firm Trans-Cab pulls IPO (Amended)

[SINGAPORE] Singapore's second-largest taxi operator Trans-Cab said on Monday it was scrapping its planned initial public offering (IPO) a day before its share offering was due to close.

The company, which had been looking to raise around S$114.2 million (US$88 million), said it was cancelling the offering due to new information relating to its insurance premium flagged by its insurer soon after launching its public offer on Nov 12.

Trans-Cab said it had not been aware it was likely to face an additional insurance premium of S$1.83 million due to cumulative accident claims made against its fleet of taxis.

It said that given its offering was due to close tomorrow, it did not have time to properly evaluate this new information, so had decided not to proceed with the listing. "In the interest of investors, the company, on the advice of its professional advisors, deems it prudent not to proceed with the IPO at this juncture," Trans-Cab said in a statement.

It added it would wait until after the audit of its accounts for the fiscal year ending Dec 31 before deciding on its next course of action.

Trans-Cab, which operates a fleet of just under 5,000 taxis, was planning to float around 25 per cent of its share capital meaning it was expected to have a market value of around S$456 million.

REUTERS

An earlier version of this story from Reuters said that the IPO was pulled a day before its shares were due to start trading. In fact, the IPO was pulled a day before the share offering was due to close. The story above has been corrected to reflect this