PETALING JAYA: Property group LBS Bina Group Bhd and its 51.2%-owned construction unit, ML Global Bhd, have requested a three-business-day trading suspension of their shares effective today until Wednesday to make way for a “material announcement”.
Shares in ML Global were last traded at 71.5 sen, up three sen from its previous close.
LBS had in April made a mandatory general offer (MGO) to buy out the remaining shares in ML Global for 56 sen each. The MGO was triggered after the company purchased 17 million ML Global shares from former managing director Datuk Beh Hang Kong, raising its stake in the company from 31.9% to 50.9%.
But most minority shareholders in ML Global had refrained from accepting the offer by LBS at the time on concerns that it was too low.
The trading suspension announced yesterday has triggered speculation of a fresh corporate exercise involving the two companies.
Both LBS and ML Global have announced a suspension of trading from Sept 9 to Sept 14, according to their filings with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.
Previous reports had indicated that a successful takeover of ML Global would enhance LBS’ earnings base and existing construction business.
Quoting CIMB Equities Research’s report on the previous deal, although LBS has an existing construction arm, this division’s capacity is almost fully utilised due to the growing order book of internal jobs.
“The acquisition of ML Global will allow LBS to depend less on third-party contractors for its own developments, while gaining new capacity for external jobs.
“We gather from LBS that it wants to grow ML Global’s construction business further and intends to maintain ML Global’s listing status,” the research firm had said previously.
Another analyst said that over a longer run, the acquisition would render extra capacity for LBS to embark on a larger scale of construction jobs, especially Government jobs in respect of building and housing works.
LBS has the muscle to launch more landed property, as it is sitting on 2,500 acres of land bank that was mostly bought at a reasonable price.
Most of LBS’ land bank is located in the Klang Valley, Pahang and Johor.
As of June, LBS had recorded sales of about RM320mil but the company is aiming to meet its RM1.2bil sales target for this year, as it was sitting on unbilled sales of about RM1.11bil as at May 31.
This year, LBS is targeting to launch new projects with a total gross development value (GDV) of around RM1.5bil.
The projects include its BSP 21 (in Bandar Saujana Putra) and Desiran Bayu (in Puchong), which have a GDV of RM815mil and RM375mil, respectively.
