KHSB oh KHSB

Kumpulan Darul Ehsan moves closer to takeover of KHSB

BY JOSEPH CHIN

KUALA LUMPUR: Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd (KDEB) moved closer to its takeover of Kumpulan Hartanah Selangor Bhd (KHSB) with the acquisition of 38.66 million shares and pushed its total stake to 65.1%.

A filing with Bursa Malaysia showed KEDB bought the 38.66 million shares or 8.59% on Tuesday from the open market. This increased its total stake to 65.1% or 293.22 million shares.

KHSB said on Wednesday with the latest corporate development, it did not comply with the public shareholding spread rules where at least 25% of its total listed shares (excluding treasury shares) are in the hands of public shareholders.

As of Tuesday, which was the last market day prior to this announcement, the percentage of public shareholding spread was 22.08%.

To recap, on April 29, 2013 KDEB had proposed to buy 254.562 million KHSB shares for RM212.81mil cash or 83.6 sen per KHSB share from Kumpulan Perangsang Selangor Bhd.

KHSB said it was informed that KDEB did not intend to maintain the listing status of KHSB on the Main Market of Bursa Securities.

"Therefore, KDEB will not be taking any step to address the shortfall in the public shareholding spread of KHSB," it said.