Goldis: victory for minority shareholders

It seems that shareholder activism is gaining ground in Malaysia.

Goldis announced in May 2013 a plan to transfer its 30.6% stake in IGB to Steady Paramount Sdn Bhd. Goldis shareholders had the following choice:

• To hold shares in Steady Paramount, but holding shares in an unlisted company is not very attractive to most investors
• To sell for cash,  RM 1.72 per IGB share, but this price is at a large discount to the NTA of IGB

In other words a choice between two undesirable options, a real dilemma for Goldis minority shareholders.

But, surprisingly, at least for me, Goldis changed its mind, according to this BM announcement:

"Reference is made to the announcement dated 8 May 2013 in relation to the Proposed Distribution. The Board of Goldis (“Board”) wishes to announce that they had, after due deliberation, decided not to table the Proposed Distribution for shareholders’ approval. The Board had arrived at this decision after taking into consideration the negative feedback from shareholders of Goldis on the Proposed Distribution."

I have to salute the Board of Goldis to take the feedback from shareholders into consideration, and change their mind. Rather rare, especially in Malaysia.

KiniBiz reported:

an analyst with a local bank backed research house opined “minorities clearly reacted negatively to this proposal initially because it was forcing their hand, they have managed to stand their ground and get the proposal scraped.”

MSWG in their weekly newsletter from July 12, 2013 commented:

And lastly Ze Moola wrote this about the proposal.

I am pretty positive about this development, I really hope minority shareholders of all Malaysian listed companies take note and fight for their rights in other corporate proposals.