KUCHING: The number of Sarawak-based companies listed on Bursa Malaysia has been reduced by one with the delisting of Weida (M) Bhd yesterday.
Weida, which was listed on Malaysia stock exchange in 2001, was taken private by its major shareholder, Weida Management Sdn Bhd, via a selective capital reduction (SCR) and repayment exercise.
Weida Management and persons acting in concert, which held about 33.3 per cent of the company’s issued share capital, offered cash repayment of RM2.40 for each Weida share to entitled shareholders.
The reasons given by Weida Management to delist the company was the listing’s minimal value-add and relevance to the company, the lack of analyst coverage, investor interest and low liquidity.
It had said that investors at large were unable to accord Weida
with a valuation in line with its net assets.
The SCR exercise, according to Weida Management, was an opportunity for shareholders to exist and realise their investments in Weida at a premium ranging from 19.94 per cent to 23.64 per cent based on the five-day to one-year volume weighted average price when the proposed exercise was announced on Jan 29, 2018.
The SCR took effect on Dec 7 following the lodgement of the office copy of the High Court Order dated Nov 13, 2018 with the Registrar of Companies.
Upon lodgement, Weida shares comprising 321,682,692 shares issued to the entitled shareholders, 84,653,340 shares held by the entitled shareholders and 6,439,100 treasury shares were cancelled, and the remaining shares thereafter are 42,240,892 shares held by the non-entitled shareholders.
Weida’s core business is in the manufacturing of polyethylene-based building materials. The group owns five plants in Sarawak, Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia and a sixth in the Philippines that produce products, including water tanks, septic tanks, water pipelines, electrical power conduits, telecom conduits and towers and drainage culverts.
Weida is Malaysia’s largest manufacturer of septic tanks for both domestic and commercial applications.
In recent years, Weida group diversified into property development. It had completed Urbana Residence, a 15-storey upmarket service apartment which houses 356 units, in Ara Damasara, Petaling Jaya.
One of the recent major contracts secured by the group was the Sarawak General Hospital’s expansion project.
In 2017, Weida’s 49 per cent-owned indirect associate Asaljuru Weida Sdn Bhd was granted a 20-year concession worth RM351 million to construct new buildings and facilities for the hospital under a build-lease-maintain-transfer model. The other shareholders of Asaljuru Wedia are Asaljuru Construction Sdn Bhd and Cahya Majestic Sdn Bhd, which have stakes of 40 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.
The proposed facilities for the hospital include a daycare centre, a medi hotel and multi-storey car park complex. Construction works for the hospital project is currently underway. – Alvin Tang
