Venture's board should explore taking firm private as it prepares for founder's exit

VENTURE Corporation should provide its shareholders with an opportunity to cash out at a premium to market price as it prepares for a future without its founder Wong Ngit Liong at the helm.

With a market value of S$5.6 billion, a net cash position of S$852.7 million as at Sep 30, and some 100 global companies that regard it as a partner of choice, Venture is likely to be an attractive and viable investment target for private equity investors.

Given Venture's long-held position that it is not in its interest to reveal any information about its customers - even in the face of a brutal short-selling attack in 2018 related to its exposure to Philip Morris International's e-cigarette product - the company is arguably better off being privately held anyway.