UMS Holdings' offer for JEP Holdings lapses

MAINBOARD-listed precision engineering firm UMS Holdings' S$0.15 per share offer and S$0.074 warrants offer for Catalist-listed JEP Holdings has lapsed as of June 24, 5.30 pm.

The resultant shareholding was 47.4 per cent of the total number of issued shares of JEP, and the resultant warrantholding was 43.4 per cent of the total number of warrants of the company. The lapse of the offer does not affect the valid acceptances of the warrants offer, as the warrants offer was unconditional. Settlement of the consideration for the warrants offer is expected to be made on or before June 28.

UMS made a mandatory conditional cash offer for the shares and an unconditional cash offer for the warrants of JEP in May, after it acquired additional shares in JEP to raise its stake to 38.8 per cent. The shares offer would have become unconditional if UMS received, by the close of the offer, valid acceptances for it to control more than 50 per cent of JEP.

The independent financial adviser for JEP had said on June 10 that the financial terms of the offers are "not fair and not reasonable". The adviser, IFA Provenance Capital, advised independent directors to recommend that shareholders reject the offer and for warrant holders to take no action and let the warrants offer lapse.