LCT Holdings co-founder seeks to take it private in S$21m deal

DU Junhong, a co-founder of mainboard-listed LCT Holdings, has offered to take the company private in a move that values it at some S$21 million.

Through investment vehicle Superior Partners Limited, Dr Du on Wednesday made a voluntary conditional cash offer to acquire all the ordinary shares in LCT at S$0.60 per share. There are more than 35 million issued shares.

Dr Du does not hold any shares but has a 19.72 per cent deemed interest through his holdings in Longdu Investment Limited, Longpartner Investment Limited and Triple Bonus Investment Pte Limited.

He and LCT's other co-founders have undertaken to accept the offer. They hold a 27.65 per cent interest combined.

The offeror said that delisting LCT will give the company greater control and flexibility to respond to any changes in an "uncertain economic environment" resulting from Covid-19 and achieve "greater efficiency and competitiveness".

For now, the offeror said, it does not intend to introduce any major changes to the business, dismiss existing employees or "re-deploy" the company's fixed assets. But it retains the flexibility at any time to "consider options or opportunities which may present themselves".

According to the bourse filing on Wednesday, Dr Du does not intend to revise the offer price or any other terms of the deal, but will reserve the right to do so "if a competitive situation arises".

The offer price represents a roughly 39.53 per cent premium over the closing price of shares in LCT when they last traded on Sept 9. It also represents a roughly 60.86 per cent, 61.73 per cent, 61.29 per cent and 25.26 per cent premium above the volume weighted average price per share for the one-month, three-month, six-month and 12-month period prior to and including Sept 9.