Pacific Concord shareholders slam privatisation offer

Investors argue the price is far too low and accuse the firm of poor disclosure

A group of minority investors in property developer Pacific Concord Holdings has slammed a privatisation offer by the controlling shareholder as 'ridiculously cheap', criticised the board's disclosure record and questioned preparation of the accounts.

The comments were made by Chelsea Securities director James Filmer-Wilson, who represents about 20 investors holding 12 million shares or a 0.3 per cent stake, at the firm's annual general meeting yesterday.

Last month, Pacific Concord chairman Wong Sai-chung offered 65 cents a share for the 42.98 per cent of the firm held by independent shareholders. The offer was a 70.29 per cent discount to net asset value of $2.188 per share.

'If the valuations hold up it looks ridiculously cheap,' Mr Filmer-Wilson said. The offer price was a 51.16 per cent premium to the share price before the privatisation offer. But most analysts use discount to net asset value as the key measure to assess property developers' share prices. The stock closed at 61 cents yesterday.

Mr Filmer-Wilson urged the board to look at other options to enhance shareholder value. 'Shareholders in this company have waited a long, long time for the development of a lot of these very interesting assets that the company has. A lot of [the assets] are just on the point of becoming very attractive,' he said.