Datapulse board previously 'not aware' of Ascapia Capital's offer

DATAPULSE'S board, in a clarification announcement to the Singapore Exchange late Wednesday night, said they were not aware of Ascapia Capital's partial offer for the company prior to published media articles, including in The Business Times, on March 7.

Ascapia, after the stories were published, had subsequently notified Datapulse in a letter that it will make its intentions clear by the end of March 9, 2018 whether or not it has a firm intention to make the partial offer.

Ascapia added that the Securities Industry Council has no objection to the deadline.

BT published a story on Wednesday saying Ascapia Capital, which already owns some 410,000 shares in cash-rich Datapulse Technology, was mulling a possible partial offer for the company in the hope of setting things right at the firm, which has been rocked by a full-blown shareholder feud sparked by a board revamp and the S$3.5 million acquisition of Wayco Manufacturing, a Malaysian-incorporated haircare products maker.

"That is the game plan. We want 27 per cent (stake) so we can have a say," Ascapia's portfolio manager Wesley Widjaja told BT.

"But it's on pause for now ... although we remain open to it as the company's shareholder base is fragmented (there are about 9,000 minority shareholders as at Jan 25) and we need to examine our options," he added.