KARACHI: The new owners of majority equity in Singer Pakistan Ltd propose to acquire up to 8.976 million shares of the total issued share capital of the company through a public offer at Rs29.79 per share, which would raise total cash consideration of Rs267 million.

The market price of the Singer stock is Rs33.87 ex-right.

In Jan 2016, pursuant to the divestment of Singer (Pakistan) by the parent based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands -- the Poseidon Synergies (PVT) Ltd; Haroon Ahmed Khan and Mrs Nighat Haroon Khan collectively acquired 13m shares of Singer Pakistan, representing 28.65pc of the present paid-up and issued share capital of the company. Moreover, the acquirers shall, pursuant to the Sale Purchase Agreement (SPA), would acquire 9.67m shares, representing 21.30pc of the total issued shares of Singer at price of Rs24 per share against cash consideration. The acquirers were stated to be willing to increase their shareholding in the target company in order to gain control and to increase the shareholders’ value. The present public offer by the new owners has been made pursuant to the Securities Act 2015 and the listed companies (substantial acquisition of voting shares and takeovers) regulations, 2008.

Earlier in Jan this year, the company had explained in a filing on the stock exchange that the foreign parent’s divestment of equity in the company was a policy decision of Singer Asia Limited, indicating that its departure was not Pakistan-specific.

Going by the balance sheet for the nine months ended Sept 30, 2015, Singer Pakistan was worth Rs3bn. The company was listed at the stock exchanges in 1985.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2016