Battle for control of Integrax hots up

PETALING JAYA: The battle to control Integrax Bhd has heated up a notch with the port operator's single-largest shareholder, Amin Halim Rasip, offering to buy a 5% stake in Integrax from Perak Corporation Bhd (PCB) at RM3.50 per share.
If accepted, this will up Amin's stake in Integrax from 24.55% to 29.55% thus foiling Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) attempt to take over control of the company Amin co-founded.
Amin's offer is a 25 sen, or 7.7% improvement over TNB's revised offer of RM3.25 which was made on Feb 25, 2015.
In his offer document, Amin stated that he plans to buy 15.04 million shares in Intergrax from Taipan Merit Sdn Bhd, a unit of Perak Corp, for RM52.64 million.
TNB has a 22.12% stake in Integrax followed by PCB's 15.74% shareholding via Taipan Merit. The other major shareholder is Amin who has stated publicly that he would not accept the offer from TNB unless the price is at least RM5.
PCB is to deliberate on TNB's revised offer at a shareholders meeting soon.
The move will cost TNB RM761.37 million, an additional RM117.13 million for the remaining 77.88% stake in Integrax it does not own.
TNB's takeover offer is conditional upon the national utility company getting at least 50% of Integrax, giving PCB a key role to play.
In his offer letter to PCB and Taipan Merit, Amin said his offer of RM3.50 per Integrax share is principally based on his business experience, knowledge and judgment.
He recommended that PCB's board reject TNB's latest offer "and derive significant value improvement and more shareholder benefits in the long term."
"PCB shareholders must realise that port assets Lumut Maritime Terminal Sdn Bhd (LMT) and Lekir Bulk Terminal Sdn Bhd (LBT) form a significant portion of PCB's value and earnings.
"The sale of Integrax shares by PCB would undermine LMT's position going forward as LMT and LBT are commercially joined at the hip, because LMT is dependent on LBT via Operations and Management Agreement due to expire or be renegotiated in 2017," he said.
Amin is a non executive director of LMT, LBT and Pelabuhan Lumut Sdn Bhd.
In a text message to SunBiz yesterday, Amin said that his offer to PCB "is a bid to see if the State (Perak) is still committed to the strategic partnership of 1995 and 2011 to bring growth to Perak."
Amin, who is also the deputy chairman of Integrax, has been aggressively buying shares in Integrax since the takeover was launched on Jan 9 this year.
In his offer letter yesterday he said "that he has and will continue to purchase Integrax shares on the open market to suit his needs."
Amin also said he has no plans to delist Integrax and will pursue to bring more liquidity to the company's shares by significantly growing LMT and LBT assets.
Integrax's share price gained 1 sen to close at RM3.18 yesterday.