Thursday, August 18, 2011

Costly lessons from Esso takeover

KUALA LUMPUR:'' It has been a costly lesson for investors who chased up ESSO MALAYSIA BHD []'s shares on Wednesday, Aug 17 on news that its parent ExxonMobil International Holdings Inc was disposing of its 65% stake.

Their expectations were dashed when the offer, announced after market close, was RM3.50 a share which was about 1.06 times Esso Malaysia's book value of RM3.28.

By that time, it was too late as the share price closed at 61 sen higher at RM4.95 with 3.07 million shares done

As of Thursday, Esso's share price plunged RM1.05 or 21% to a low of RM3.90 in early trade.

As at 10.40am, it was down 80 sen to RM4.15 with 8.67 million shares done.

Under the deal announced Wednesday, San Miguel's acquisition of the 65% or 175.50 million shares would cost the Philippines' brewery giant RM614.25 million (US$206.02 million).

It also plans to upgrade the Port Dickson refinery to enable it to make use of a wider variety of crudes and produce higher valued-added products.

As for the investing public, more details should be provided by the vendors about the state of the refinery and if possible what was the criterion for the valuations.

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