Amin throws in the towel

PETALING JAYA: Four years after triumphing in a bitter tussle for control of Integrax Bhd with his brother Harun Halim Rasip, co-founder Amin Halim Rasip has thrown in the towel after going toe-to-toe with utility giant Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) over its offer for the port operator the last three months.
A day after TNB's revised offer of RM3.25 for Integrax became unconditional, Amin announced that he will be selling his shares in Integrax and moving on to other projects.
The corporate battle was centered once again on the Lumut Port which comprises two terminals, Lumut Maritime Terminal Sdn Bhd (LMT) and Lekir Bulk Terminal Sdn Bhd (LBT).
Amin's campaign to stop TNB gaining control of the port suffered a setback when Perak Corp Bhd (PCB) shareholders voted to approve the sale of its 15.74% hold on Integrax to TNB.
Despite this however, Amin has persisted in his campaign calling on Integrax shareholders to hold off accepting TNB's offer with a promise of a RM3.66 a share offer from himself and other business entrepreneurs.
"Given the different directions pursued by TNB and PCB with respect to the future of the LBT and LMT assets, I will be selling my Integrax shares, as it will be more beneficial and productive for me to pursue the business projects and opportunities I intended to develop at Lumut, at a number of other suitable locations in Malaysia and the region," Amin said in a statement yesterday.
Amin, who holds 24.25% in Integrax, had previously said that he will not be selling out his shares in Integrax despite TNB improving its offer to RM3.25 apiece from RM2.75.
It will be a bitter pill to swallow for Amin considering that in 2011, LMT was at the centre of a tussle between Amin and elder brother Harun, who were co-CEOs and directors.
The siblings had a long-running and very public feud over the running of the company.
Amin and Harun could not come to an agreement with regard to the possibility of a 10-year interim contract to provide transshipment services to Brazil-based Vale International SA, which was keen on building a RM3 billion iron ore pellet distribution centre in Perak.
Amin wanted to pursue the contract to provide transshipment to Vale SA but Harun opposed the deal due to its high cost.
The tussle eventually involved other major shareholders of Integrax but culminated in Harun exiting Integrax by selling his half of the 37.8% stake jointly held by the brothers, to TNB.
In a report yesterday, PublicInvest Research said that with Integrax in TNB's hand, it would provide full control over the Lumut Port and therefore enhance security of coal supply to its Janamanjung power plants located nearby, especially with the scheduled capacity expansion plans.
From its first announcement to acquire Integrax on Jan 9, 2015, TNB has increased its shareholding in the company from 22.12% to the current 28.32%, "indicating the group's seriousness in owning the port operations".
In addition to this, TNB has also received another 22.50% valid acceptances resulting in TNB holding 50.82% of Integrax shares as at March 30, 2015.
Another 6.33% shares of Integrax have been transferred into TNB's account but are pending acceptance or verification of the acceptance forms, ultimately pushing its shareholding to a total of 57.15%.
TNB's offer was also extended until April 13, but no subsequent extension will be granted.
"We believe more minority shareholders will surrender their Integrax shares ahead of the extended closing date as TNB had indicated earlier of their intention not to maintain the listing status of Integrax," PublicInvest Research said.
The research firm maintained a "neutral" call on TNB with a target price of RM14.64 as it does "not expect any significant financial contributions from the take-over as Integrax's FY14 net profit of RM38.7 million is only 0.6% of TNB's net profit of over RM6 billion in FY14".