KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 (Bernama) -- Adamus Avenue Sdn Bhd (AASB), which launched a conditional takeover of M3nergy Bhd, offering RM1.85 per share, has received over 71 per cent acceptances for the voting shares of the oil and gas services provider, as of June 19.

Companies controlled by major shareholder, Tunku Datuk Yaacob bin Tunku Tan Sri Abdullah, who owns 71.14 per cent of M3nergy, have confirmed acceptance of the conditional offer.

These include Melewar Equities (BVI) Ltd which holds 45.42 per cent controlling block (57.53 million shares) in M3nergy, Melewar Industrial Group Bhd, 22.3 per cent or 28.25 million shares and Malaysia Assurance Alliance Bhd, 3.69 per cent stake or 4.677 million shares, sources told Bernama today.

The decision to accept the offer was made after considering that M3nergy shares were thinly traded and would be difficult for large blocks of shares to be transacted in the open market besides the wish to redeploy the consideration received from the offer, the sources said.

AASB, via Kenanga Investment Bank, made a conditional takeover bid for M3nergy by offering RM1.85 per share.

The offer remains open for acceptance until Friday, June 25, but half of the acceptances were already received by June 16.

It is understood that M3nergy shares have been thinly traded the past one year with the price hovering below RM1.50.

As such, the offer price of RM1.85 provides an opportunity for shareholders to realise their investment in M3nergy at a higher return than it would derive if disposed in the open market.

The premium of 9.47 per cent being offered at the price of RM1.85 by the offeror is also within the range of takeover premiums and higher than the average takeover premiums of 8.61 per cent for the comparable take-over transactions over the last 12 months, sources said.

Meanwhile, it was reported that AASB is a private company owned by Datuk Shahrazi Sha'ari, who is the current Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of M3nergy.

The conditional take-over offer of 100 per cent of M3nergy shares comprises all existing 126.658 million ordinary shares of RM1.00 each in M3nergy, excluding 828,000 treasury shares, as well as any new M3nergy shares of up to 6.116 million that may be issued and allotted to eligible employees and directors of M3nergy.

-- BERNAMA