S’pore first, then Sports Toto Trust plans secondary listing on Bursa M'sia

KUALA LUMPUR: Sports Toto Malaysia Trust (STM Trust) will have a secondary listing on Bursa Malaysia following its planned listing in Singapore, according to a senior official of Berjaya Group Bhd.
Freddie
Pang Hock Cheng, who is executive director of Berjaya Group and Berjaya
Sports Toto (BToto), said a listing would be sought in Malaysia upon
the completion of a business trust listing framework in Malaysia.
“The
plan is to list STM Trust in Singapore first and then in Malaysia once
the framework is completed here, so that investors can have the freedom
to choose whether to invest in STM Trust units here or in Singapore,”
Pang said in an interview with StarBiz.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Pang: ‘Valuation wise, the units listed here and Singapore should be almost the same.’ STM Trust, which is to be Singapore-based, is the trust that BToto intends to set up to house its Malaysian gaming business.
“Valuation wise, the units listed here and Singapore should be almost the same,” Pang said.
It
is understood that the Securities Commission and Bursa Malaysia are
targeting a July deadline to issue guidelines on the listing of
business trusts in Malaysia.
Last week, BToto announced that it would transfer its entire equity interest in Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd (STM) which holds the lottery licence, to STM Trust in a deal valued at RM6bil.
This deal is higher than BToto's current market capitalisation of about RM5.7bil based on yesterday's closing price of RM4.21.
“We would have done it here but there's no legislation for a business trust here yet,” Pang said.
Upon
completion of the transfer of assets to STM Trust, which will be
satisfied via the issuance of new units of STM Trust and a promissory
note, STM Trust will be listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd.
The listing is targeted for mid-November where it will raise approximately RM1.24bil.
Presently, there are more than 10 business trusts listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
Kenanga
Research, which did a study on 10 business trusts in Singapore, noted
that their prices were down by an average of 27.1% as of June 6.
These trusts offered an average yield of some 6%, the house added.
When
asked to comment on the timing of the proposed deal, Pang said BToto
had been thinking about such an exercise for “some time already.”
“We
were already thinking about this last year. We want to unlock
shareholder value by accessing larger pools of funds for
non-syariah-compliant stocks,” Pang said.