Koufu quits the stock market

1. The Great Resignation isn't just happening to individuals but Singapore companies too. $KOUFU GROUP LIMITED(VL6.SI)$ management is offering other shareholders $0.77 per share to delist the company.

2. This feels like one of the shortest listings in Singapore considering that Koufu was listed in 2018 at an IPO price of $0.63, just before the World Cup final between France and Croatia. Now they are delisting even before the next World Cup begins.

3. The reason for the IPO was to use the proceeds for building the integrated facility in Woodlands, renovating the outlets and expanding the business. $43m was raised for Koufu and the founders sold some stake for $27.5m. The building has since been sold to a third party at around $11m.

4. The privatisation reasons were pretty templated: low trading liquidity + greater management flexibility and no point paying listing fees since not raising more money. We won't know what is the real reason.

5. $0.77 was the highest price transacted for Koufu shares (after adjusting for dividends distributed). An offer at this price literally means that all shareholders will NOT lose money. Most will be in profits if not at least will break even. This means that shareholders are likelier to accept the Offer.

6. From a valuation standpoint, Koufu IPO-ed at PE 13x and now delisting at PE 22x is quite a fair deal.

7. The Offeror owns 77.41% stake and it just needs another 12.59% to delist the company (cross 90% mark). Easy peasy considering that the Offer is quite fair and shareholders will make money.

8. The next crucial point is when the Offeror hits 97.741% stake (90% of the shares they do not own). This is where they can, and already declared that they will, exercise the compulsory acquisition clause to buy over the remaining shares from the dissenting shareholders. This means that the Offeror can just buy over your shares even if you didn't want to accept the Offer.

9. With the situations described above, I think that this delisting is very likely to happen without much fanfare. Shareholders would probably feel it is a pity that they couldn't continue to hold the stock, but at least there won't be a bad taste lingering in their mouth.