KUALA LUMPUR (March 27): Shares in Icon Offshore Bhd surged to a near four-year high in early morning trade on Wednesday after a major shareholder of Yinson Holdings Bhd acquired a controlling stake in the offshore support vessel provider and triggered a mandatory takeover offer.
The counter had climbed 17.8% or 13 sen to an intraday high of 86 sen, before paring gains to trade at 78.5 sen, still up 5.5 sen or 7.5%, with 13.85 million shares changing hands.
At 78.5 sen, Icon Offshore is valued at RM422.15 million. Year to date, the group’s share price has climbed 34.2%.
Likewise, Icon Offshore’s warrants also climbed in response to the takeover bid. The group’s warrants rose as much as 28.6% to 22.5 sen before paring gains to 21 sen, up 3.5 sen or 20%, at the time of writing.
On Tuesday (March 26), Icon Offshore announced that Singaporean trading and logistics firm Liannex Corp (S) Pte Ltd — a private vehicle of Yinson major shareholder Lim Han Weng and his spouse Bah Kim Lian — acquired a 50.2% stake in Icon Offshore for RM172.2 million, or 63.5 sen per share, cash.
Liannex purchased the stake from state-owned private equity firm Ekuiti National Bhd, or Ekuinas. It is understood that the transaction slashed Ekuinas’ shareholding in Icon Offshore to about 5.83%.
In consequence of the 50.2% stake acquisition, Lim via Liannex also extended an offer to acquire the remaining shares it does not own, comprising an offer for the remaining 49.8% stake in Icon Offshore at 63.5 sen per share as well as 100% of the group’s warrants, or 130.9 million warrants, at 0.1 sen apiece.
Lim controls a 24.5% stake in Yinson via his wife, children, Liannex and Yinson Legacy Sdn Bhd.
Based on back-of-the-envelope calculations, Lim would have to fork out RM171.35 million to complete the takeover offer — RM171.22 million for the remaining 49.8% stake and RM130,903 for the warrants.
Compared to Icon Offshore’s share price of 78.5 sen at the time of writing, Lim’s 63.5 sen offer price represents a 19.1% discount.
Meanwhile, the 0.1 sen offer price for the warrants reflects a hefty discount of 99.5% versus the warrants’ price of 21 sen at the time of writing.
According to Icon Offshore’s filing on Tuesday, Liannex intends to maintain the group’s listing status.