XinRen Aluminum requests suspension in share trading; to delist from SGX

MAINBOARD-LISTED aluminium manufacturer XinRen Aluminum on Thursday announced it would delist from the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and has requested that SGX suspend the trading of its shares, following a takeover by major shareholder Merit Stand Inc.

The voluntary conditional cash offer for all the issued and paid-up ordinary shares in the share capital of XinRen Aluminum Holdings Limited closed at 5.30pm on Thursday, DBS announced - for and on behalf of Merit Stand - on Thursday.

"Accordingly, the offer is no longer open for acceptance and any acceptances received thereafter will be rejected," said DBS.

Merit Stand, a major shareholder of XinRen Aluminum, in February proposed a S$780 million takeover offer of the latter.

Going by a transaction on Thursday, Merit Stand will acquire 270,000 shares, which represent 0.02 per cent of XinRen Aluminum's 1.3 billion total issued shares (excluding 6.98 million treasury shares), for S$0.60 apiece.

The resultant total number of shares owned by Merit Stand and parties acting in concert with it is about 1.3 billion, representing about 99.68 per cent of the total number of issued shares owned by Merit Stand and parties.

XinRen Aluminum said: "The percentage of the total number of shares which are held in public hands has fallen below 10 per cent and, accordingly, the company no longer meets the free float requirement prescribed by Rule 723 of the Listing Manual of the SGX-ST."

It will request that SGX suspend trading of its shares with effect from 9am on Friday; the company is also in the midst of seeking confirmation from the SGX that it has no objections to the delisting of its shares.