KUALA LUMPUR (April 26): Doctor-turned-businessman Tan Sri Mohan MK Swami and his partner Datuk Seri Dr Shamir Kumar Nandy agreed on Friday to acquire a 58% stake in property management company Turiya Bhd for RM52.86 million from MAA Group Bhd.
The acquisition price of 40 sen per share represents a premium of one sen, or 2.6%, to Turiya’s last price of 39 sen.
Under Malaysian takeover laws, Swami and Shamir will be required to make a general offer to acquire all the remaining shares not already owned by them.
The announcement came at the end of a near three-year legal tussle between MAA and Swami-linked Empire Holdings Ltd over the stake.
MAA had acquired the stake for RM23.79 million or 18 sen per share in 2021 from Ithmaar Bank, which Empire argued was merely holding the Turiya shares for Empire by way of charge.
Turiya shares jumped 7.5 sen or 26% on April 18, when it was announced that MAA was dropped by Empire as a respondent in the suit.
Following the agreement for MAA to sell the stake to Swami and Shamir, MAA has withdrawn its own mandatory takeover offer extended in 2021, according to a separate statement.
Turiya’s net assets amounted to RM132.35 million or 58 sen per share at end-December last year. Based on trailing earnings per share of 1.86 sen, the transaction price for MAA’s stake values the company at 21.5 times trailing price-earnings ratio.
The company, which operates a property investment segment and manufactures specialty chemical products for the semiconductor industry, has been profitable in the last five years, although it still carries negative equity reserves of RM148.97 million.
Shares in the company were voluntarily suspended from trading from 9am to 3.30pm on Friday.
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