AT ITS extraordinary general meeting on Friday (Jun 30), Nico Steel received approval from its shareholders to delist without an exit offer.

Votes representing 2.1 billion shares, or 72.9 per cent of the total number of shares that voted, were in favour for the company’s move to delist without an exit offer.

This comes a day after David Gerald, president and chief executive of Securities Investors Association (Singapore), or Sias, said that the investor rights advocate had been approached by concerned shareholders as the company had yet to address questions about its plans to delist.

Among other questions, Gerald asked if the company’s independent directors (IDs) had considered a sale and leaseback of the group’s Loyang property to monetise its assets and put the company “in a position to make an exit offer which would not significantly and adversely affect the company’s operations”.

The company later responded that the sale of the property, which it considers a key operating asset, would “significantly and adversely affect the company’s operational and financial position, and would materially prejudice its going concern status”.

It also said that while it has statutory reserves, this amount would not be sufficient to make a fair and reasonable exit offer.

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Furthermore, the company’s IDs did not consider a voluntary winding-up resolution as “the group is a bona fide going concern”.