Chesterfield placement to net $24m
CHESTERFIELD is to raise $24 million from a conditional share placement which will bring in two new large shareholders.
The company, a listed subsidiary of the suspended MKI Corp, also has a new chief executive officer and director, Paul Liu Ngai-wing.
There has been speculation for the last few days that the company may be subject to a change of control, with the most likely new owners being the Chiu family, who already control three listed companies of the Far East Group, or Peter Lam Kin-ngok of the Lai Sun group.
However, yesterday's announcement from Chesterfield made no mention of either party.
It stated that Boland Overseas and Brentford International Investments are each to take 87 million newly-issued Chesterfield shares at 13.8 cents a share, which will mean each owns 7.5 per cent of the company.
It said Boland was a private company beneficially-owned by Vincent Cheung, the managing partner of a Hong Kong law firm. It added that Brentford was beneficially wholly-owned by Fung Kwok-hung a businessman and former senior executive of a listed company in Hong Kong, which it did not name.
Mr Liu refused to give any further information about the two new shareholders.
Chesterfield's parent, MKI Corp, has been suspended from trading since June 6. Its last major share placement was to a company called Good Faith International, a China property developer which Chesterfield says has since disappeared triggering the $130 million project to be written down to $1,000 in Chesterfield's accounts.
This new Chesterfield placement does not need shareholder approval as the company's shareholders gave approval for an increase in the company's share capital of up to 20 per cent at last month's annual general meeting.
The company statement said that the placements were only conditional on the stock exchange granting permission for the newly-issued shares to be traded, with a deadline of November 30 which could be extended.
