Consortium of Penguin International executives raises privatisation offer to ‘final’ S$0.83 per share
Uma Devi
A CONSORTIUM comprising Penguin International ’s executive chairman and managing director, as well as a special purpose vehicle under private equity firm Dymon Asia, has upped its offer to a “final” S$0.83 per share in cash to take the company private.
On May 4, the consortium had announced that it would offer S$0.82 per share in cash. With the latest revision, the financial adviser – W Capital Markets – said the offeror does not intend to revise the offer price further, unless a “competitive situation” arises.
The final offer price of S$0.83 per share represents a 4.1 per cent or S$0.0325 increase over the initial offer price of S$0.7975, after adjusting for the company’s FY2022 dividend payout.
The revised offer price also represents a premium of 16.9 per cent versus Penguin’s last transacted price of S$0.71 before the initial offer announcement on May 4. The initial offer had a premium of 15.5 per cent compared to the company’s last transacted price.
The revised offer also translates to a premium of about 18.1 per cent, 18.7 per cent, 18.6 per cent and 17.4 per cent over the volume-weighted average price per share for the one-month, three-month, six-month and 12-month periods, respectively.
However, the revised offer still translates to a discount of about 8.9 per cent when compared to the group’s net asset value per share of S$0.8998 as at end-December last year, according to the company’s full-year financial results.
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“The offeror is of the view that the final offer price enhances the opportunity for shareholders, who find it difficult to exit the company as a result of the low trading volume in the shares, to liquidate and realise their investment in the shares at a premium to the prevailing market prices which may otherwise not be available given the low trading liquidity of the shares,” said W Capital Markets on behalf of the offeror.
W Capital Markets added that the offeror is of the view that the revised offer price “reinforces the clean cash exit opportunity” for shareholders to realise their entire investment in the shares at a premium over their prevailing trading prices without incurring brokerage and other trading costs.
As the record date for the company’s FY2022 dividend payout has passed, the final offer price has been determined on the basis that the offeror will not receive the dividend.
W Capital Markets clarified that a shareholder who was registered as such at the record date and validly accepts the offer will receive both the FY2022 dividend and the final offer price. A shareholder who was not registered at the record date but validly accepts the offer will only receive the final offer price.
The record date is May 10, and the FY2022 dividend will be paid out on May 23.
Shares of Penguin International ended Monday at S$0.795, down 1.2 per cent or S$0.01.
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