Offer for IPC goes on but not mandatory after Oei Hong Leong pulls out

Singapore

CATALIST-listed Asia-Pacific Strategic Investments (APSI) has said it will proceed to acquire shares in IPC Corp from certain existing shareholders, notwithstanding tycoon Oei Hong Leong's withdrawal from the offer.

Without Mr Oei's stake, however, APSI would only assume control of 11.9 million shares, or about 13.95 per cent of IPC's share capital.

Since the acquisition of shares from IPC chief executive Patrick Ngiam and other executive directors would give APSI a less than 30 per cent stake in IPC, APSI will not be required to make a mandatory offer for IPC's remaining shares, under Singapore's takeover code.

Mr Oei has a 32.96 per cent stake in mainboard-listed IPC. He also has a 34.82 per cent stake in APSI.

APSI had earlier said it planned to integrate IPC's business with its own. APSI planned to pay for the proposed acquisition by issuing 133 new, fully paid-up ordinary shares for every IPC share.

This offer arrangement represented a 28.2 per cent premium to the last traded price of IPC shares on Jan 26 - the last trading day before the announcement - and a 6.6 per cent discount to the volume-weighted average price for the three-month period to Jan 26.

IPC shares closed flat at S$0.35 on Tuesday.