KUALA LUMPUR: A week after the voluntary takeover offer for Yee Lee Corp Bhd lapsed, the joint offerors are still unable to garner 90% shareholding in the company.

There was additional acceptances of 1.63 million shares or a 0.85% stake, raising the shareholding of one of the offerors, Singapore-based Dymon Asia Private Equity (SE Asia) Fund II Ptd Ltd, to 60.39 million shares or 31.52%, according to a filing with Bursa Malaysia today.

The other offeror is Yee Lee’s founder Datuk Lim A Heng @ Lim Kok Cheong and family, who hold a total stake of 58.41%.

The two joint offerors' total shareholding now stands at 172.3 million shares or 89.93% — still short of 139,207 shares or 0.07% from the 90% threshold that was needed during the offer period to undertake a compulsory acquisition

The closing date of the voluntary takeover offer, originally set for June 3, was extended twice to July 3.

Under the circumstances, Yee Lee will remain listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia.

An option the joint offerors may consider is to continue mopping up shares on the open market to raise their shareholding to 90% and request for voluntary suspension of trading in the company’s shares from the stock exchange.

Once trading is suspended, the chances of minority shareholders taking up the offer will be higher as most investors are not keen to hold non-traded shares.

Still, those shares in hand now will only enable the joint offerors to suspend the trading of the shares but not undertake a compulsory acquisition to buy the remaining shares they do not own.

“They (the offerors) may consider an exit offer later at [a] different price, which could be lower, higher or even the same price,” said a corporate finance adviser, noting that a fresh offer will not be backdated to the earlier offer.

Additionally, it is understood that a six-month cooling period after the previous offer date is needed before the joint offerors could make another attempt to delist or take the company private.

Shares in Yee Lee spiked to RM2.29 on April 29 — after the offerors first announced their plan to take Yee Lee private, from RM1.91 in the previous trading day.

The stock has fallen from a near two-year high of RM2.33 on July 4 (a day after the closing date) to close at RM2.11 today. This brings its market capitalisation to RM404.3 million.