"Listing of IOI Properties rushed and ill-timed"

Article on the website of The Star: Listing of IOI Properties ‘rushed and ill-timed’:

"Minority shareholders claim listing of IOI Properties rushed and ill-timed".

Details follow, mostly from remisiers on behalf of their clients:

• "as most of them (their clients) were away for the holidays or had yet to receive the necessary documents by post"
• "While the application is downloadable from Bursa Malaysia’s website, a remisier said this put senior citizens at a disadvantage. “Many of them don’t have access to the Internet. It shows a lack of concern for shareholders,” he said."
• "Stockbrokers are not authorised to sign on behalf of clients. We can try to help one or two clients, but not if it involves thousands of ringgit"

Rita Benoy Bushon, Chief Executive Officer, Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group, is even more outspoken in "The Observer, Message from the CEO", dated 3 January 2014:


"Minority shareholders of IOI Corp Bhd have every right to feel disgruntled by the short space of time given to subscribe for their entitlement for shares of its soon-to-be-listed IOI Properties Bhd.
 
Although the Company has announced the book closing date of the ROS (Restricted Offer Shares) on 19 December 2013 which is at least 11 market days before the date of application according to the Main Market Listing Requirement, it nevertheless had only issued the prospectus on 26 Dec 2013, which is a mere five working days before 2 January 2014, if the public holidays and weekends are excluded.

IOI should have realised that by conducting this exercise over the vacation period, many people may be on leave, postal deliveries could also be delayed in this period, which also meant that many may not have received the necessary documents by post on time. (Thus the complaints are valid.)

The company should really have given minorities more time to subscribe for their entitlements.
 
We view this as especially serious since it has been the subject of criticism following its delisting in 2009 (being bought out at just 0.66 times NTA for a RM1.3 billion valuation).

We hope IOI Corp will further extend the closing period for the application (noting that they have already done so today by 4 days) and show their good faith to the current minority shareholders, who are expected to be keen to take advantage of the offer. The reason being, that each IOI Properties share at RM1.76 under the ROS comes at a 30% discount to the reference price of RM2.51. In addition, an even steeper 42.7% to IOI Properties’ pro forma net asset per share of RM3.07. Otherwise, it could be construed negatively by the public that the offer not taken by entitled shareholders (for reasons beyond them) would be given to other shareholders at the discretion of the Board, at a discount."


I have written before about this IPO: "The return of IOI Properties" and "IOI Prospectus, 1623 pages!".

The only good news I can bring is that the length of the IPO prospectus is indeed brought back to 750 pages, a reduction of almost 1000 pages, although for me, it is still much too long.