FSL Trust lifts trading halt following sponsor's offer for all its units

FIRST Ship Lease (FSL) Trust on Monday morning requested to lift its trading halt following its sponsor's mandatory general offer for all of its units.

FSL Holdings made the offer after taking up new units in FSL Trust via a recent preferential offering.

It offered S$0.0585 in cash for each FSL Trust unit, which represents a 33 per cent premium to the last transacted price of S$0.044 on Thursday, before FSL Trust called for a trading halt.

The offeror does not intend to delist the owner of containerships and tankers from the mainboard, but reserves the right to assess its options if FSL Trust's free float falls below the minimum requirement.

Non-independent non-executive chairman of the trust's manager FSL Trust Management, Stathis Topouzoglou, now has a deemed interest in 877.2 million units or 55.04 per cent of FSL Trust units, versus 157.9 million units or 24.77 per cent before. 

Due to having recorded a volume-weighted six-month average price of less than S$0.20 and a six-month average daily market capitalisation of less than S$40 million, FSL Trust was placed on the Singapore Exchange's watch list on June 6, along with five other companies.