Techcomp president's buyout offer for shares in private co is "fair and reasonable": independent adviser

THE offer by Techcomp's president to buy out shares in a private company that were distributed last month to Techcomp shareholders via a distribution in specie is "fair and reasonable", an independent adviser wrote on Tuesday.

Techcomp is dual-listed in Hong Kong and Singapore, and shareholders are being offered HK$0.84 in cash for each share in the private company, Techcomp Instrument (Privateco), that they received.

The offer has turned unconditional as Lo Yat Keung, Techcomp's president, executive director and controlling shareholder, controlled 56.7 per cent of Privateco's share capital as at Monday.

Amasse Capital, the independent financial adviser to Privateco's shareholders, has recommended that they accept the offer.

Although the cash offer of HK$0.84 per Privateco share represents a discount of about 49.7 per cent to Privateco's adjusted net asset value of HK$1.67 per share as at Dec 31 last year, the Privateco shares are unlisted and illiquid as there is no open market for them, Amasse noted.

It also noted the unsatisfactory performance of Privateco, which had been loss-making for the past three years, as well as the worldwide market (excluding China) of the analytical and life science instrument is relatively saturated.