High Court approves Pan-United Corp's proposed capital reduction

PAN-UNITED Corp (PanU) announced that Singapore's High Court has granted the Order of Court approving its proposed capital reduction and proposed distribution.

In May this year, it had announced it was planning to spin off its ports business Xinghua to be listed in Hong Kong, as well as raise up to S$60.9 million from a rights issue to pay off port-related debt.

As part of the de-merger, Xinghua is capitalising an existing S$102 million inter-company loan extended by PanU into newly issued Xinghua shares.

Upon completion of the proposed restructuring, PanU intends to undergo a capital reduction exercise after which the funds generated from the capital reduction shall be returned to the shareholders by the distribution of PanU's entire shareholding in Xinghua to entitled shareholders on the indicative basis of one Xinghua share for every PanU share.

It also highlighted in Wednesday's announcement: "Shareholders should note that the proposed capital reduction and distribution will only be effective upon the lodgement of a copy of the Order of Court with the Registrar of Companies within 90 days beginning with the date the Order of Court is made, or within such longer period as the Registrar of Companies may allow."