In an earlier blog post on Are Investors Short-Changing Themselves Over Privatisation Deals?, I had discussed 3 cases of unsuccessful privatisations and commented that investors who had rejected the privatisation offers had generally fared better than those who had accepted the offers. A search on the internet revealed that there are more unsuccessful privatisations on the Singapore Exchange than initially thought. In this blog post, we will do a more comprehensive study of the outcome of unsuccessful privatisations.
The table below shows the companies that have at least one unsuccessful privatisation and compares the offer price with the current stock price plus all dividends received to-date since the close of the privatisation offer. The table also shows the returns investor would get from rejecting the privatisation offer and holding the shares till today. 2 of the companies (namely CK Tang and Pertama) were eventually successfully privatised and the successful privatisation offer price is used to compute investors' returns had they rejected the earlier privatisation offer. Another 2 companies (namely CK Tang and Nera Tel) have 2 unsuccessful privatisations. Only the later privatisation offer is used to compute the overall average and median returns from these unsuccessful privatisations.
| Company | Offer Timeline | Offer Price | Current Price | Total Dividends | Total Returns | % Returns |
Remarks |
| CK Tang | Nov 03 | $ 0.420 | $ 0.830 | $ 0.003 | $ 0.833 | 98% | Privatised at $0.83 |
| CK Tang | Jan 06 | $ 0.650 | $ 0.830 | $ 0.003 | $ 0.833 | 28% | Privatised at $0.83 |
| China MZ | Sep 13 | $ 1.120 | $ 0.895 | $ 0.010 | $ 0.905 | -19% | Reinstated free float |
| Eastern | Jun 12 | $ 0.180 | $ 0.290 | $ - | $ 0.290 | 61% | |
| F&N | Jan 13 | $ 9.550 | $ 3.090 | $ 7.790 | $ 10.880 | 14% | Reinstated free float |
| Guocoleisure | Jan 05 | $ 1.250 | $ 1.065 | $ 0.185 | $ 1.250 | 0% | |
| K1 Ventures | Jun 12 | $ 0.135 | $ 0.177 | $ 0.085 | $ 0.262 | 94% | |
| Kingboard | May 09 | $ 0.210 | $ 0.185 | $ 0.006 | $ 0.191 | -9% | |
| KS Energy | Jun 11 | $ 1.070 | $ 0.445 | $ - | $ 0.445 | -58% | 1-for-4 Rts @ $0.41 |
| KT&T | Mar 02 | $ 1.100 | $ 1.745 | $ 0.563 | $ 2.308 | 110% | |
| Nera Tel | Feb 12 | $ 0.450 | $ 0.735 | $ 0.140 | $ 0.875 | 94% | |
| Nera Tel | Nov 12 | $ 0.490 | $ 0.735 | $ 0.100 | $ 0.835 | 70% | |
| Pertama | Jun 11 | $ 0.650 | $ 0.650 | $ 0.086 | $ 0.736 | 13% | Privatised at $0.65 |
| SembMar | Jun 02 | $ 1.100 | $ 4.030 | $ 1.670 | $ 5.700 | 418% | 2-for-5 Bonus |
| STATS | Mar 07 | $ 1.750 | $ 0.505 | $ 0.340 | $ 0.845 | -52% | |
| Vard | Jan 13 | $ 1.220 | $ 1.005 | $ - | $ 1.005 | -18% | |
| Average | 47% | ||||||
| Median | 14% |
Based on the above 16 cases of unsuccessful privatisations, dissenting shareholders stood to gain from 10 of them. The gain ranges from 13% to 418%. 5 of the unsuccessful privatisations resulted in losses for the dissenting shareholders. The loss ranges from -9% to -58%. One of the unsuccessful privatisation had no gain or loss for the dissenting shareholders. Overall, the average gain for dissenting shareholders is 47% and the median gain is 14%.
Of the above companies, 2 companies (namely China Minzhong and F&N) could have been
privatised as their free float at the close of the takeover offer
had fallen to below 10%. The majority shareholders decided
to retain the companies' listing status and sold off shares to increase the free
float to above 10%. This depressed the share price after the close of the takeover offer. If these 2 companies were excluded, the average and median gain for dissenting shareholders would be 55% and 21% respectively.
Based on the above information, it is tempting to conclude that shareholders are generally better off rejecting the privatisation offers. However, a closer look at the companies that have performed extremely well or poorly after their privatisation offers shows that it is ultimately the performance of the business that determines whether dissenting shareholders gain or lose by rejecting the offer. Shareholders should therefore review the prospects of the companies in deciding whether to accept or reject the privatisation offer.
If you are aware of any unsuccessful privatisation that is not listed in the table above, please let me know so that a more complete study could be carried out. Thanks.
P.S. I am vested in CapitaMalls Asia, which is the subject of a privatisation offer by Capitaland.
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