Business

Purchase bid: WorldCall Telecom gets fresh acquisition offers

WorldCall Services and Ferret Consulting express interest in buying shares

Our Correspondent September 06, 2016

WorldCall Services and Ferret Consulting express interest in buying shares. PHOTO: EXPRESS

KARACHI: WorldCall Telecom Limited, which has been open for acquisition for the last few months, has received fresh expressions of interest from potential buyers, according to a bourse filing.

WorldCall Services (Private) Limited and Ferret Consulting have expressed interest in acquiring 56.8% (488.83 million) ordinary shares and 100% (350,000) convertible preference shares respectively, said Arif Habib Limited, manager to the offer, in a statement to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

The announcement, though made in the closing hours of trading at PSX, helped push WorldCall Telecom’s share price up by Rs0.25, or 15.33%, which closed at Rs1.88 with a volume of 27.16 million shares.

The manager to the offer added Ferret Consulting was a company based in the United Arab Emirates.

It said the face value of ordinary shares was Rs10 each and the value of convertible preference shares was $100 each. Omantel Telecommunications Company has been the major shareholder of WorldCall Telecom since 2008.

Going forward, the acceptance of intention by WorldCall Telecom would allow interested companies to conduct due diligence and give their bid price for the acquisition. This would be subject to regulatory approvals from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and other regulators.

In case a deal is executed at a certain agreed price, then the acquirer of ordinary voting shares, WorldCall Services, will make a public announcement to buy another 50% of shares owned by the general public.

In June 2016, Allied Supplies and Services (Private) Limited and Dunya Technologies (Private) Limited had expressed the intention to acquire 56.8% ordinary shares and 100% convertible preference shares in WorldCall Telecom respectively. Later on, they withdrew the offer after talks between them ended without any agreement.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2016.

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COMMENTS (1)

Rustam | 7 years ago | Reply The directors of WorldCall Services (Private) Limited and Ferret Consulting are currently managing WorldCall Telecom, as stated in its website, and they are the ones who are acquiring it, a announced Therefore, I wonder if it is an arrangement to transfer shares from Omantel, the incumbent controlling share holder, to its incumbent management team.

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