Minority shareholders should hold out against Lian Beng’s lowball offer

CONSTRUCTION and engineering company Lian Beng Group is trying its luck with a lowball privatisation offer for the company. Minority shareholders should stand their ground, as they may hold a trump card.

The Ong family behind Lian Beng wants to take it private at S$0.62 a share. This is a mere 40.3 per cent of Lian Beng’s net asset value (NAV), which stood at about S$1.54 per share as at end-November.

Worse still, the price might be lowered further by any dividend or return of capital Lian Beng declares, makes or pays from now. Lian Beng’s financial year ends in May. In the last financial year, it paid a final dividend of S$0.02 per share.