IJM deal off as Sunway misses 50pct acceptance mark

 

Sunway Bhd's takeover offer for IJM Corp Bhd has lapsed after failing to secure the required 50 per cent acceptance threshold by the 5pm deadline today.

KUALA LUMPUR: Sunway Bhd's takeover offer for IJM Corp Bhd has lapsed after securing only 33.43 per cent acceptances, falling short of the required 50 per cent threshold by the 5pm deadline today.

Sunway's RM11 billion takeover offer, announced in mid-January, proposed 10 per cent in cash, 31.5 sen for each IJM share, and 90 per cent in the form of new Sunway shares, equivalent to 0.501 shares valued at RM5.65 for each IJM share.

The RM11 billion offer, announced in mid-January, proposed 31.5 sen in cash and 0.501 new Sunway shares for each IJM share, valuing the offer at RM3.15 per share.

This represented a 28 per cent premium to IJM's market price at the time and involved the issuance of about 1.76 billion new Sunway shares, alongside a cash outlay of around RM1.1 billion.

The lapse follows rejections from major shareholders, including Permodalan Nasional Bhd, which declined the offer for its 13.5 per cent stake, and the Employees Provident Fund, which holds more than 20 per cent.

Their combined stakes effectively prevented Sunway from reaching the acceptance threshold required for the offer to become unconditional.

Sunway had proposed the conditional voluntary takeover on Jan 12, 2026 to acquire all 3.51 billion IJM shares.

Last Friday, IJM reiterated its guidance for shareholders to refer to the independent advice circular dated March 13, in which M&A Securities Sdn Bhd concluded the offer was "not fair and not reasonable".

The board maintained its recommendation for shareholders to reject the offer.

Both counters fell in early trade ahead of the deadline.

Sunway closed four sen, or 0.8 per cent, lower at RM4.99, giving it a market capitalisation of RM33.96 billion.

IJM ended five sen, or 2.16 per cent, lower at RM2.36, with a market value of RM8.61 billion. - NST