ICP Limited’s controlling shareholder, Aw Cheok Huat, is seeking to take the Catalist-listed company private. The announcement comes after an April 2 announcement saying that there was a “possible transaction” involving the company and that deliberations were ongoing at the time.

ICP and Aw, on April 19, said that the latter had presented a formal proposal to ICP’s board to seek the voluntary delisting of the company.

Under the delisting proposal, Aw will make an exit cash offer of 0.9 cents per share to acquire all the shares he does not already own. The offer price represents a premium of 16.88% over the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of 0.77 cents for the one-period up to and including April 1

The offer will only go through if ICP’s shareholders holding at least 75% of the shares in the company approve the delisting at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM).

As at April 19, Aw owns 57.16% of the company or 1.91 billion shares in its total capital.

According to the joint statement, the delisting is due to the low trading volume of ICP’s shares on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX-ST). In the past month, ICP’s average daily trading volume was 407,224. The company’s average daily trading volume for the past three, six and 12 months were 643,097, 526,008 and 456,219 respectively.

The delisting will also give Aw and ICP’s management greater flexibility to manage its business, optimise the use of its management and capital resources and facilitate the implementation of any operational changes without the costs associated with its listed status. The company adds that it will be able to save on costs relating to the maintenance of its listed status and will be able to focus its resources on its business.

Should ICP’s shareholders approve the delisting, ICP will delist from the Catalist board, irrespective of the number of acceptances received.

The company adds that Aw presently does not intend to introduce any major changes, fire any of the company’s existing employees or re-deploy any of the company’s fixed assets.

ICP has three reportable segments - hospitality, the chartering of vessels, mainly oil tankers and its investment holding business. The company first listed on the SGX's Mainboard in July 1975 and on the SGX Sesdaq in June 1992. The company was first incorporated as Gold Coin Limited before it changed its name to Goldtron in 1992 after a restructuring exercise. It subsequently changed its name to ICP and traded under its new name in October 2012.