KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 22): PLS Plantations Bhd has proposed to place out 19 million new shares in the durian planter to CIMB Group Holdings Bhd ex-chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak (pictured) at 95 sen each under a private placement of up to 10% of the total number of issued shares in the company to improve its public shareholding spread and raise money to finance the expansion of its existing business.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, PLS said the private placement, which includes share placements to other independent third party investors, will also enable the company to raise funds to partially repay the group’s bank borrowings which stood at approximately RM121.48 million as at Dec 31, 2020.

"PLS is currently in non-compliance with the public shareholding spread requirement as set out in Paragraph 8.02(1) of the Listing Requirements, which stipulates that a listed issuer must ensure that at least 25% of its total listed shares (excluding treasury shares) are in the hands of public shareholders, and the proposed placement is mainly undertaken to improve the public shareholding spread of the company and potentially increase the liquidity of PLS shares arising from the increase in the number of the PLS shares in issue.

"To recapitulate, PLS on Dec 9, 2019 announced that based on the company’s record of depositors as at Nov 29, 2019, the public shareholding spread of the company stood at 23.32%, which was not in compliance with the public spread requirement.