Public Bank to merge local and foreign shares under single stock code

January 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Updated: Thursday January 2, 2014 MYT 3:43:01 PM

Public Bank to merge local and foreign shares under single stock code (Update1)

KUALA LUMPUR: Public Bank Bhd has proposed to merge the “Local” and “Foreign” shares where the entire paid-up share capital will be quoted and traded on Bursa Malaysia Securities under a single stock code.Public Bank said on Thursday the single stock code would be 1295.

“The proposed merger of Public Bank ‘L’ shares and Public Bank ‘F’ shares will be undertaken without any form of compensation to shareholders, whether locals or foreigners, holding ‘F’ shares in their Central Depository System (CDS) accounts, for the share price differential between the ‘L’ shares and ‘F’  shares, if any,” it said.

At Bursa Malaysia, Public Bank fell 30 sen to RM19.10 and erased 3.04 points from the KLCI while Public Bank foreign lost 44 sen to RM19.10.

Public Bank said this was after taking into consideration that Public Bank had not previously undertaken any corporate exercise which made a distinction between the “L” and “F” shares in terms of pricing of the securities.

It added the reference opening price of the merged shares would be the last closing price of the “L” shares on the market immediately prior to the effective date of the proposed merger of the “L” shares and “F” shares or any other price as may be determined by Bursa Securities.

To recap, Public Bank said it had submitted an application dated June 15, 1989 to the then Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) for the separate quotation of Public Bank shares.

The application was to alleviate the inconvenience experienced by foreign investors in trading in Public Bank shares, due to the 30% limit on foreign shareholdings as stated in the Articles of Association of Public Bank and the environment of script-based trading during that period.

The separate quotation of shares under “L” shares and “F” shares started on Oct 2, 1989 following the approval received from the then KLSE on Sept 20,  1989.

“However, under the current CDS environment whereby shares listed on Bursa Securities are traded electronically, it is no longer relevant to have separate quotation of Public Bank shares as both local and foreign investors can, under the current CDS environment, trade in either or both Public Bank ‘L’ shares and ‘F’ shares,” it said.

As at Sept 30, 2013, a total of 31.71% of the shares was held by foreigners. The percentage was based on the total number of shares in issue and after excluding shares bought-back and retained as treasury shares as at Sept 30, 2013.

The banking group had announced on Oct 9, 2013 that 30.00% of the paid-up share capital held by foreigners as at Sept 30, 2013 would be entitled to all rights and entitlements attached to the shares.

Public Bank also said then that all “F” shares held by foreigners as at Sept 30, 2013 would be entitled to all rights and entitlements attached to the shares.

However, 1.71% of the share capital of Public Bank held by foreigners as at Sept 30, 2013 and which were “L” shares would be entitled to the rights and entitlements attached to the shares except for voting rights.

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