By Jose Barrock
Liew Kee Sin
A company associated with former SP Setia Bhd top management is taking over little-known listed company Focal Aims Holdings Bhd with an agreement signed to purchase 65% of the company for RM230.7 million or RM1.40 a share. Interestingly one of those purchasing the stake is Liew Tian Xiong, son of SP Setia president and CEO Liew Kee Sin.
Focal Aims Holdings Bhd’s shares were suspended from trading after about half an hour of the morning session. Prior to its suspension, Focal Aims stock was up 30 sen or almost 33% to RM1.21, making it among the top gainers in early trade. The trading halt was for an hour, after which the company’s shares gained marginally.
The excitement surrounding Focal Aims stemmed from a notice received from Eco World Development Holdings Sdn Bhd (formerly known as Maple Quay Sdn. Bhd), and Liew Tian Xiong that they had entered into a share sale agreement with various shareholders of the company to acquire 164.8 million ordinary shares of RM 1.00 each in the company, which represent 65.05% of the issued and paid-up share capital of the company, for RM230.7 million which is equivalent to RM 1.40 per share.
Eco World and Liew will undertake a general offer for the remaining shares it does not own at RM1.40 per share.
As at end June this year, Focal Aims which is also property developer and property management company had a net asset per share of RM1.26
In April this year Eco World was thrust into the limelight when it acquired two parcels of land from DRB Hicom Bhd—-one a 613.79 acre tract in Johor for RM 534.7 million and another a 9.6 acre parcel in Kuala Lumpur for RM69.92 million.
Eco World also created news as the figures behind the company were all linked to developer SP Setia. Namely the directors of Eco World are Abdul Rashid Manaf, previously the chairman of SP Setia before his resignation in October last year, and Eddie Leong Kok Wah who retired as independent non-executive director of SP Setia end February this year, and Liew Tian Xiong, who is the son of SP Setia’s president and chief executive officer Liew Kee Sin.
The senior Liew is slated to leave SP Setia which he helped create into among Malaysia’s largest developer, by next year.
Eco World’s chief executive officer is Chang Khim Wah also an ex SP Setia bigwig.
Other than those mentioned above there are several other individuals from SP Setia in high places at Eco World.
Rashid was chairman of SP Setia from March 1997 to October last year, and was the senior partner in a legal firm and the Senior Federal Counsel for the Income Tax Department in the mid 1970’s. He was known to be an associate of former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin.
Leong meanwhile is an executive director with water player Salcon Bhd, and is known to have a background in investment banking.
Interestingly enough Focal Aims chairman is Mohd Razali Abdul Rahman who is also chairman of Peremba (M) Bhd, a Daim linked company. Mohd Razali as at end December last year had 7.3% in Focal Aims.
This could be a significant game changer for Focal Aims.
For its six months ended June this year, Focal Aims posted net profits of RM24.2 million from RM112.3 million in revenue. The company’s earnings per share for the nine months ended June stood at 9.6 sen.
In terms of land size, Eco World has 5.26 ha in Air Itam, Penang Island; 24.28 ha in Seberang Prai, Penang; 433 ha in Semenyih, Selangor; 497.76 ha in Tebrau, Johor; and 154.99 ha in Senai, Johor.
All in Eco World’s total developments are valued at about RM30 billion, news reports over the weekend stated.
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