Just-Too-Late - TMCLife, ChinWell, PriceWorth, IRIS

TMCLife: Speculation that TMC Life Sciences Bhd may be involved in a corporate exercise.

 

Singapore billionaire Peter Lim Eng Hock is rumoured to be thinking of parking all his healthcare services assets in Malaysia and Singapore under TMC Life.

Lim is a major shareholder of the company with a 76.57% stake.

Its mandatory general offer (MGO) is priced at 48 sen that Lim had offered in August 2014.

The corporate exercise, sources said, would see two hospital assets – Tropicana Medical Centre in Petaling Jaya and Thomson Medical Centre in Singapore – being parked under Bursa Malaysia-listed TMC Life.

A stronger control of TMC Life would allow Lim to inject his Singapore assets under one entity. This would see Lim indirectly re-floating the Thomson Medical Centre on the Malaysian stock market at a higher premium.

Lim wholly-owns Thomson Medical Centre Pte Ltd, which was once listed on the Singapore Stock exchange. It was privatised in 2011 by Lim via his vehicle Sasteria Pte Ltd in a deal that valued it at S$513mil (RM1.31bil) or S$1.75 per share. It was then reported that the privatisation had valued Thomson Medical Centre at up to 30 times estimated street earnings in its financial year 2011.

It was reported that Thomson Medical could easily fetch premiums of anywhere between 40-50 times forward earnings.

In early August 2014, Lim acquired an additional 26.6% in TMC Life from tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun for 48 sen per share, raising his stake in the company to 59.2% and triggering an MGO for the rest of the shares he did not already own. When the MGO closed on Sept 18 2014, Lim had increased his stake in the company to the current 76.57% stake.

TMC Life was planning to address the non-compliance with the public shareholding spread requirement, which stated that a company must ensure that at least 25% of its total listed shares were in the hands of public shareholders.

Lim intended to retain the listing status of the company, which would explore various options or proposals to rectify the public shareholding spread.

ChinWell: Its MD Tsai Yung Chuan has bought a total 21.53 million shares in the company, equivalent to a 7.9% stake. After the acquisition, Tsai has a 58.12% stake, or 158.41 million shares, in the company. Chin Well makes screws, nuts, bolts and other fastening products.

PriceWorth: Priceworth International Bhd saw 4.3% of its shares traded in an off-market deal sharply below its current traded price on 22 Sept 2014. 17 million shares of the Sabah-based timber company were transacted at an average price of 20 sen a share.

On Sept 15 2014, Priceworth announced its unit Maxland Dockyard & Engineering Sdn Bhd had teamed up with Semaring Enterprise Sdn Bhd to take part in the onshore and offshore oil and gas works. Semaring Enterprise is a supplier for Petroliam Nasional Bhd and Petronas’ contracted profit sharing contractors.

IRIS: Iris Corporation Bhd has been appointed as the "approved refund agent" for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) refund services to foreign tourists, under the Tourist Refund Scheme.

The job was awarded by the Royal Malaysia Customs via its the group's unit Iris Information Technology Systems Sdn Bhd.

Investment of the tender is RM155mil but Iris will be paid an fee of 15% from the GST Refund Services.

The appointment is for a term of three years, where it will be financed through internally generated funds and bank borrowings.

Iris expects the job to contribute positively to the financial results of the group in the long run.