Monday 12 January 2015

Masterskill: why take 0.60 if one can get 1.10?

Masterskill announced:


"that it has today received a Notice of Conditional Take-Over Offer (“Notice”) from Arenga Pinnata Sdn. Bhd. (“APSB” or “Offeror”) through CIMB Investment Bank Berhad to undertake a conditional take-over offer to acquire all the remaining ordinary shares of RM0.20 each in MEGB (excluding treasury shares) (“Shares”) not already held by the Offeror (“Offer Shares”) at a cash consideration of RM0.60 (“Offer Price”) for each Offer Share (“Offer”)."


If RM 0.60 per share is a good price or a bad price, I honestly don't know.

Masterskill had produced a horrible set of numbers from the moment it was listed. Besides that, corporate governance did not appear to be one of their strongest points, to put it mildly. From that point of view, the deal doesn't look that bad.

On the other hand, the IPO price was RM 3.80, in that light the price looks pretty horrific. Many shareholders will be sitting on substantial losses.

However, something else is going on, something puzzling to say the least.

RM 0.60 is the price per share offered now, which Siva Kumar has accepted:


But Siva Kumar had a put option to sell his shares for the price of RM 1.10 per share, according to this announcement:


Why would anyone not exercise a put option to sell ones shares for RM 1.10 per share, and then less than 4 months later accept an offer for RM 0.60 per share, a whopping 45% lower? For Siva Kumar the difference between the two offers is close to RM 60 Million cash, a nice and tidy sum of money.

Are we missing something, a piece of the puzzle?

2 comments:

  1. this is not a rocket science puzzle, I guess.

    the previous put option, was just a drama but didn't brought excitement to investors and failed

    so back to reality and sell at 60cts

    did I answer your puzzle?

    Bursa and SC should investigate.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, you might be right, but then again, is it our job to make assumptions?

    Bursa and SC should indeed investigate.

    ReplyDelete