IOI Corp shares suspended for corporate announcement

KUALA LUMPUR: Trading in the shares of IOI Corp Bhd
was voluntarily suspended from 11.02am on Thursday for a corporate
announcement, which could be linked to the proposed listing of its
property arm.
"The request for suspension was made under
paragraph 3.1(a) of Practice Note 2 of the Main Market Listing
Requirements of Bursa Securities, in view of the pending release of an
announcement relating to a material corporate exercise," IOI said.
Its shares rose 21 sen to RM5.33 with 7.22 million shares done before the suspension.
StarBiz
reported today that IOI Corp plans to relist its property arm, IOI
Properties, in September via a demerger exercise that may also involve a
dividend-in-specie payment and a rights issue.
This would make IOI Properties one of the biggest listed property developers in the country with total assets of RM15bil.
To be listed in September, the asset size of IOI Properties would be worth more than RM12bil even after deducting liabilities.
To
reward IOI Corp shareholders, not less than half of the RM15bil would
be returned to shareholders in the form of a dividend-in-specie. Based
on IOI Corp's 6.4 billion share base, this works out to more than RM1.20
per share.
IOI Corp shareholders will be getting more than 50% of their IOI Properties shares for free.
The
market value of IOI Properties will be at a discount to the asset size
of RM15bil as a property company typically trades at a discount to its
book value.