KUCHING: Businessman Dato Chew Chiaw Ann has surprisingly emerged as a substantial shareholder in Kim Hin Industry Bhd, a week after its controlling shareholder launched a bid to take the ceramic tile manufacturer private.
He had acquired 9,410,500 shares, representing 6.047 per cent in Kim Hin, from the open market this week. He bought 8,810,000 shares (5.661%) on July 14, and accumulated an additional 443,000 shares and 157,200 shares over the next two days respectively.
Kim Hin shares have been trading around 85sen per share, the takeover offer price from controlling shareholders, Kim Hin (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Chua Seng Huat (joint offerors).
At an average price of 85sen, the low-profile businessman would have forked out RM7.99 million for the acquisition of Kim Hin shares.
Chiaw Ann is the brother of Ibraco Bhd’s group managing director and major shareholder Datuk Chew Chiaw Han, who is a known corporate player in Sarawak, and said to be very well-connected politically.
Chiaw Ann was “thrust into the limelight” when The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 26, 2025 reported that his name stood out in Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd’s (CMS) list of 30 largest shareholders for the first time in the conglomerate’s 2024 annual report.
Chiaw Ann held 15.25 million shares (1.42%) in CMS as at March 24, 2025. CMS closed at RM1.25 on Thursday.
On July 4, the joint offerors (via UOB Kay Hian Securities (M) Sdn Bhd) served the notice of unconditional voluntary take-over offer (Notice) to acquire all the remaining of about 52.94 million shares (37.75%) of the total issued shares of Kim Hin for 85sen cash per share.
Kim Hin has a total of about 140.24 million shares (excluding 15.37 million treasury shares) in issue. The joint offerors collectively hold about 87.3 million Kim Hin shares (62.25%).
Based on the list of shareholdings in Kim Hin as at March 28, 2025, there were only two shareholders who held five per cent of more; 69 shareholders (110,001 to less than 5% issued shares); 376 shareholders (10,001 to 100,000 shares); 1,395 shareholders (1,001 to 10,000 shares); 574 shareholders (100 to 1,000 shares) and 87 shareholders (1 to 99 shares).
The takeover offer price of 85sen is a premium of 39sen (+84.78%) over the last transacted price of Kim Hin shares at 46sen on July 3 before the stock was suspended for the takeover bid announcement by the joint offerors. Kim Hin’s net asset per share is RM1.88.
Kim Hin has appointed New Paradigm Securities Sdn Bhd as the independent adviser to provide comments, opinion, information and recommendation on the offer in an independent advice circular to be issued.
The offer is not conditional upon any minimum level of acceptances of the offer shares as the joint offerors already hold in aggregate more than 50 per cent of the voting shares in Kim Hin. The offer will be made in conjunction with the posting of the offer document. which will not be later than 21 days from the date of the Notice (posting date).
According to Kim Hin’s independent non-executive director Dato Sim Kheng Boon, the independent advice circular will be despatched to holders of the offer shares within 10 days from the date of dispatch of the offer document or any later date as may be approved by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC).
Sim has advised holders of the offer shares to read the offer document and the independent advice circular carefully before taking any actions (whether to accept or not the offer price).
Should the joint offerors secure 90 per cent acceptances, they intend to invoke Section 222(1) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 to compulsorily acquire the remaining shares. In such a case, Bursa Malaysia will suspend the stock five market days after the offer closes, paving the way for delisting.
If they fail to achieve the 90 per cent threshold, the joint offerors may revise the offer price — provided they do so at least two days before the closing date — and extend the offer period.
Kim Hin has been loss making for several years due to the weak demand of ceramic tiles in Malaysia and overseas markets where it operates due primarily to the housing slump.
In first quarter ended March 31, 2025, Kim Hin posted group revenue of RM58.35 million and a net loss of RM3.42 million. The company held cash and bank balances of RM51.1 million.
