bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

Directors of Regent Pacific, the medium-sized Hong Kong fund management group, are to buy back the 64 per cent shareholding in the company held by Canadian parent Altamira.

  This is part of a strategy to expand further into emerging markets and build a presence in the United States. The company also is hoping to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange by the end of the year, to become the territory's first locally listed fund management company.

  Regent had planned to list soon after its establishment in 1991, but this was delayed until its business had grown.

  Chairman Jim Mellon and directors Peter Everington, Sophia Shaw and Jane Sutcliffe, will buy Altamira's stake in the company after a fruitless search conducted by London-based Phoenix Securities for a suitable shareholder.

  The complex purchase of the 64 per cent stake is to be financed by a partial private placing to US and Japanese institutions, as well as some rich individual investors.

  The placement puts a value of US$220 million on the company, and a price-earnings multiple of 8.5 times 1996 earnings.

  This is regarded as cheap when compared with the British fund management sector average of about 18 times historic earnings.

  The remaining 28 million shares in Regent, or 37 per cent of the share capital, will not form part of the private placement and is to be cancelled.

   Altamira will retain a seat on Regent's board and be one of the company's single largest clients. It will run Altamira's $100 million Asian funds.

  'At the end of the day, the management and staff will have 40 per cent, and the rest owned by a spread of institutions and shareholders, who we believe will have some strategic value to Regent,' Sophia Shaw, Regent director responsible for marketing and business development, said.

  'The restructuring allows us to form a shareholder base that is extremely strong, and we believe that we have placed it at an attractive level, which allows us to grow,' she added.

  The company is looking to expand further into Russia, where about $400 million of its total $2 billion portfolio is managed.

  Regent already has 20 per cent of the foreign stockbroking business in Russia and will expand further there.

  'We also want to establish a business in the US . . . where we have barely had time to scratch the surface,' Ms Shaw said.

  The company's plan to list locally will provide it with a chance to raise funds and boost liquidity for shareholders.

  'Through this [current] exercise the company has not expanded its balance sheet,' Ms Shaw said.

  She said Hong Kong was a natural location for a listing because the company was better known in the territory, had a firmer Hong Kong base and knew the Hong Kong stock exchange's regulations well.

  In the year to end-March, 1996, Regent made profits of $24.6 million, a more than 10-fold increase from when the company was established.



Regent Pacific directors to buy back parent's 64pc stake