LCD Global

LCD Global: ($0.29) Lum brothers bow out; to become JTrust's SE Asian growth platform The controlling Lum family has agreed to sell its 29.5% stake in LCD Global to J Trust at $0.30 per share. Lum brothers, David and Kelvin, will relinquish their directorships and employment with the company upon completion of the deal. Thereafter, LCD Global will be renamed to JTrust International (JTI), and the group will appoint J Trust’s CEO Nobuyoshi Fujisawa and Shigeyoshi Asano, as executive directors. Interestingly, the Lum family’s exit of their holdings comes just two months after their mandatory conditional offer for LCD Global at $0.17 per share lapsed. Back then, there were cries from minority shareholders that the offer price undervalued the stock. Affirming this view, Aspial Corp’s CEO Koh Wee Seng continued to buy shares in the open market at prices between $0.255 - $0.29 per share. Currently, Koh and Aspial own a combined 18.1% stake in LCD Global. Should J Trust also acquire Koh’s additional stake, this would trigger a mandatory general offer under SGX rules, and provide the Japanese financial services provider with an opportunity to make JTI a subsidiary. Amid a sliding yen and stagnant domestic growth, Japanese companies have been eager to seek expansion via overseas acquisitions. Accordingly, J Trust intends to leverage on JTI as a platform to conduct diversified real estate business in the SE Asia region. LCD Global currently owns a string of hotels and serviced apartments in Thailand, the UK, Vietnam and Lao PDR, as well as a 55% stake in property consultancy group Knight Frank Singapore. The counter is up 3.6% today at $0.29, and trades at 1.1x P/B.