Lereno Bio-Chem completing RTO on Feb 18, to suspend trading

LERENO Bio-Chem, which is attempting a reverse takeover (RTO) of Knit Textile and Apparel, has scheduled the completion date for Feb 18.

In September 2017, Lereno said that it had entered into an agreement with Lim Siau Hing @ Lim Kim Hoe to acquire all the issued ordinary shares in the capital of Knit Textile and Apparel for about S$26.4 million.

Knit Textile and Apparel is a private company which is engaged primarily in the business of contract manufacturing of apparels, specialising in manufacturing of nightwear, lounge wear, casual wear and plus sizes apparels in Malaysia and Cambodia, and is in the process of expanding upstream into the knitting, dyeing, printing and finishing of fabric.

Under the restructuring, Knit Textile and Apparel was due to acquire a number of companies. The restructuring is now complete, and on Thursday, Lereno exercised the call option under the terms of its option agreement with the vendor.

The company is expected to suspend trading of its shares with effect from 9am on Feb 18 as it completes its share issuance transactions.

Lereno completed a share consolidation of every 20 ordinary shares into one share on Jan 29. On Feb 18, it will issue up to 136.5 million new shares at an issue price of S$0.20 each to the vendor and/or his nominees to satisfy the purchase consideration for the acquisition and the transaction costs, and up to 5.5 million new shares at the same issue price to Compass Consulting for the provision of services to the vendor.

Following this, the percentage of shares held in public hands will be about 1.35 per cent - below the public float requirement - and trading is expected to be suspended.

Trading will resume after up to 24 million new shares at an issue price of S$0.20 are issued to Bin Tai Holdings and the public float is restored, said Lereno. The Bin Tai placement may take two to three months to complete.