Jardine Strategic fails to strike out claims from dissenting shareholders seeking 'arbitrage profit'

JARDINE Strategic has failed to convince the Bermuda court to strike out the claims of dissenting shareholders who are seeking the court’s appraisal of fair value of the shares because they had bought the shares after the announcement of its amalgamation.

The Chief Justice of Bermuda, Narinder Hargun, in his judgment published on Monday (Apr 25), held that the right to request the court to appraise fair value can be exercised by any shareholder who holds shares that were taken from him by the company as a result of an amalgamation or merger which he did not approve and provided that such an application is made within the time stipulated.

On Mar 8 last year, Jardine Strategic and Jardine Matheson announced plans to simplify the structure of the Jardine group, in which Jardine Matheson would acquire about 15 per cent of the issued share capital of Jardine Strategic that it did not already own at US$33 a share.