(Aug 28): An entity called Ultimate Horizon has made an offer to acquire all the shares in Blumont Group at 0.0182 cent each. The takeover deal values Blumont at $5.8 million, which is more than 80% below its market value of $31.7 million, based on its last traded price of 0.1 cent.
Blumont was one of the three counters at the centre of the penny stock saga of October 2013. John Soh Chee Wen, the alleged mastermind behind the rise and fall of the three stocks, is now in remand and awaiting trial. The other two stocks were LionGold Corp and Asiasons Capital, which has since been renamed Attilan Group.
Headquartered in Singapore, Blumont has four core business segments: investment holding, sterilisation of food packaging and medical devices, property, and mineral and energy resources.
In an announcement filed with the Singapore Exchange, Blumont says Ultimate Horizon had bought over 69.6% of the company for $4 million on Aug 24. This worked out to an average purchase price of 0.018172 cent apiece. The shares were acquired via an off- market transaction.
While the offer price is a massive discount to Blumont’s last traded price, it is actually not too far off the company’s net asset value. As at June 30, Blumont’s NAV per share was 0.02 cent — down from 0.03 cent as at Dec 31, 2016.
According to Blumont’s FY2016 annual report, its largest shareholder as at March 27 was the Platinum Partners Value Arbitrage Fund, with 48.6% of the company. The second-largest shareholder was the Platinum Partners Credit Opportunities Master Fund, which held another 35%. Ng Kim Huatt, the company’s sole executive director, holds 100 million shares, or 0.36%.
With Ultimate Horizon having assumed ownership of more than 30% of Blumont, the listing rules of SGX require a mandatory general offer to be made to the rest of the shareholders.
According to Blumont’s announcement, Ultimate Horizon is solely owned by Malaysian businessman Siaw Lu Howe. Siaw’s interests are mainly in the state of Sarawak, in areas ranging from hospitality to real estate and mining services. Besides him, Ultimate Horizon has another director: Kek Wei Na.
On Aug 14, Blumont announced that its losses for the quarter to June 30 had almost doubled to $5.4 million, from $2.8 million a year earlier. Revenue in the same period fell 9% to $861,000.
