Hot stock: Lasseters surges to three-year high on proposed Australian asset disposal

SHARES of Catalist-listed Lasseters International Holdings reached a three-year high on Tuesday after the integrated resort operator proposed to dispose of its Australian assets for A$105 million (S$108.5 million).

The counter jumped to an intraday high of 6.6 Singapore cents, up 2.7 cents or 69.2 per cent as at 9.04am. The last time the counter closed near this level was in October 2017.

By 10.35am, shares of Lasseters were trading 35.9 per cent or 1.4 Singapore cents higher at 5.3 cents, with 11.6 million shares changing hands.

In a bourse filing on Monday evening, Lasseters said two of its wholly-owned subsidiaries entered into various agreements with entities under Sydney-based Iris Capital, an integrated development and hospitality group.

The purchase consideration of A$105 million is nearly six times that of Lasseter's market capitalisation of S$19 million.

The proposed disposal assets include the freehold land and buildings and improvements of Ford Dynasty, its casino hotel and convention centre business and non-real property business assets. The group has also proposed to dispose of Lasseters Health Club's business and business assets.

Ford Dynasty will retain ownership of the Lasseters brand. It has entered into a separate brand licence deal with one of the Iris Capital entities to grant an exclusive, royalty-free licence to use the Lasseters brand in Australia.

The book value of the proposed disposal assets stood at A$121 million as at Dec 31, 2020. This includes a revaluation surplus of A$75.3 million. The tax capital gain on the proposed disposal is about A$52.9 million.

The group plans to convene an extraordinary general meeting to seek shareholders' approval for the proposed transaction.