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Biotreat has certainly fallen away from its pre-crisis levels...to think that it generated RMB 330 million net profit in 2007 !
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This Heads of Agreement deal is seriously taking a long time to hammer out! Boustead announced today another extension to the Long Stop Agreement date from December 13, 2010 to December 19, 2010 (essentially, one week). I suspect they need this week to close the T&C of the deal and to finalize it for announcement next week, or else they would have extended it much further down the road to perhaps next year?
Whatever the case, hope to hear some good news on Big Box soon.
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Net cash is about 0.363 per share as per latest quarter? 10-20% to spare?
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Dec 20, 2010
BETWEEN BOUSTEAD SINGAPORE AND TTI
'White knight' deal called off
By Francis Chan , COMPANIES CORRESPONDENT
A 'WHITE knight' deal between Boustead Singapore and TT International (TTI) has been called off after the two firms were unable to agree to terms of a $150 million rescue of debt-riddled TTI.
The two companies said on Sunday in a filing with the Singapore Exchange that no agreement has been reached as of Sunday - the last deadline set a week ago. No further deadline would be set.
The collapse of the deal comes after at least three false starts that would have involved engineering giant Boustead pumping in $150 million to revive TTI's stalled retail and warehouse project in Jurong known as Big Box.
TTI executive director Julia Tong was on leave and could not be contacted on Monday for comment.
The embattled firm, which also owns electronics brand Akira, said in a separate filing with SGX that it will 'continue exploring opportunities to complete the development of the property and to realise its investment therein, with interested parties'.
TTI has been at the centre of a wide-ranging legal battle with creditors. Its problems started during the financial crisis when it found itself under a mountain of debt it had trouble repaying.
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Think we're gonna get some cash back for the final dividend since this deal's been called off? Or does Boss Wong have other aces to play. Am thinking he won't be returning much to us. 8-S
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This article from BT explains a little more on why Boustead decided to pull out. The T&C were "untenable" to FF Wong under the WRS, which was why he decided not to continue. [See section in BOLD]
Business Times - 21 Dec 2010
TTI left in the lurch as Boustead pulls out
Debt-laden TTI's survival could be at stake without $150m for Big Box project
By VEN SREENIVASAN
(SINGAPORE) In a move which could be the straw that finally breaks TT International's back, mainboard-listed Boustead Singapore has pulled out of its plans to pump in some $150 million to revive the former's Big Box mega retail-cum-warehouse project in Jurong East.
The move could leave TTI, which is weighed down with massive debt and under a Scheme of Arrangement, with no lifeline for survival as a going concern.
Boustead, which has been negotiating with TTI to partner it in this eight-storey 125,000 sq m gross floor area warehouse-cum-retail complex next to Jurong East MRT Station, said the risks were untenable given the restrictions placed under the Warehouse Retail Scheme (WRS).
'After extensive negotiations and due diligence process, we realised that given the restrictive terms of the WRS and the requirements of the creditors, we could not mitigate the risks,' said FF Wong, Boustead's CEO and executive chairman. 'As such, we have decided not to proceed with this project.'
One key requirement of the WRS scheme is that TTI would be the main and only official lessee of the Big Box. This means that despite coughing up some $150 million, Boustead would have little say - at least on paper - on the scale of its involvement in the finished project or how it could use the building.
Boustead, already an infrastructure, energy and engineering player, was looking to invest in the Big Box because it saw it as an avenue for stable and steady recurrent income.
Its pullout leaves TTI - which has already pumped in $95 million into the project - in a major fix.
Led by the husband-and- wife team of executive chairman Sng Sze Hiang and executive director Julia Tong, TTI built up an impressive portfolio as a global trader of mainly electronic products. In particular, it had built up its Akira brand into a household name.
In 2008, prior to the financial meltdown, the company posted $5.6 million profit on revenue of $876 million. Its NTA was $185 million.
By October 2008, the financial crisis hit and client payment defaults left the company teetering with huge debts, inventory write-downs and impairment losses. Banks started pulling back credit facilities, including some $83 million which was cancelled or frozen in 2009.
By end-2009, the company was facing some $600 million in claims, including syndicated loans from a slew of banks. It also defaulted on its $250 million multi-currency medium-term note (MTN) programme.
Financial adviser nTan Corporate Advisory and legal firm WongPartnership, who were appointed to assess the damage, proposed a scheme of arrangement to manage the debts and impose a moratorium on any immediate action against TTI. Meanwhile, Mr Sng and Ms Tong sought court protection against personal bankruptcy.
The company sought court protection, resulting in a final Scheme of Arrangement with OCBC Bank, main Big Box contractor Ho Lee and DBS Bank appointed as the monitoring committee (MC) to oversee the scheme as the company tried to negotiate its way back into business with clients and principals.
But the biggest hope for a recovery was the resumption of the Big Box project.
Allocated to TTI by the Economic Development Board under its fourth WRS (after three others in Tampines, where Ikea, Giant and Courts own similar projects), it would have been a marquee project for TTI.
But after sinking some $95 million into the Big Box, work stopped after the foundation stage as the funds ran out.
TTI has about three months to salvage the situation and find a new 'white knight' failing which the fortune of this once-thriving company could crash against the rocks.
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My views from reading all the previous audio transcripts on MW blog tell me that Boustead investors should not hold their breadth about getting a special dividend. Mr Wong is already of the view that the company is rewarding investors well and he has stated more than a few times that he is happy with the dividends dished out.
The company has been sitting on its horde of cash for > 2 yrs now. Its not in a hurry to invest the monies and seems to have rather stringent criterias. And I kinda of suspect that perhaps that was partly the reason for the collapse of the deal with TTI. Maybe Bousted will do the unthinkable and make a takeover attempt at TTI instead??
Not vested in Boustead. Vested in TTI.
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