Berjaya Sports Toto Trust to list in Singapore by Q4

BToto Trust to list in Singapore by Q4

 Malaysian general election was part of reason for delay

PETALING JAYA: Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd (BToto) will list its business trust early in the fourth quarter of this year, a top official said.
Freddie Pang Hock Cheng, who is executive director of Berjaya Group and BToto, said all approvals had been obtained for the listing of Sports Toto Malaysia Trust (STM-Trust).
“Singapore would be the primary listing. We intend to seek a secondary listing on Bursa Malaysia,” he told StarBiz in response to email queries.

BToto, which is in the numbers forecasting business, had said last December that it had received a conditional eligibility-to-list or ELT letter from the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd (SGX-ST) for the listing of the STM-Trust on the main board.
Pang had then said the listing would likely take place by the end of January 2013, adding that the proposed exercise was still pending approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) at that time.

Yesterday, Pang said the MAS approval was received in early April and that SGX-ST had since given BToto extensions.
“We are updating our prospectus before we can launch the trust. We are doing that now and expect the listing to be completed early in the fourth quarter of the current calendar year.”
Under the exercise, BToto shareholders will likely get a special dividend of more than 40 sen per share, according to reports.

The numbers forecasting operator had last year revealed its plan to spin off its wholly owned, cash-generating subsidiary Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd into a business trust that would be listed in Singapore.
In a circular distributed to its shareholders last November, BToto said the listing was expected to raise S$270mil (RM685mil), out of which S$234.95mil (RM597mil), or an estimated RM45 for every 100 BToto shares held, would be allocated as a special dividend to shareholders.

Besides the allocation for special dividend payment, the company also said that part of the proceeds from the listing would be used to retire Sports Toto Malaysia’s existing loans.
As at last December, Sports Toto Malaysia reportedly had a medium-term notes programme valued at RM550mil, which needs to be paid off by 2017.
Essentially, business trusts are business enterprises set up as a trust structure and managed by a trustee-manager, which holds the assets on trust for unit-holders.

Notably, BToto’s decision to list in Singapore was made before business trust rules in Malaysia were finalised.
Since then, however, the Securities Commission has released guidelines for business trusts here.
Bursa Malaysia had in March also issued its amended rules to enable the listing of business trusts on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia.

Separately, sources had earlier said there had been some concerns by investors in Singapore about the outcome of the general election here and how it could affect BToto’s business.
“But with all that settled now, BToto has resumed its roadshow with investors there and dealings with the authorities in Singapore to get it listed,” said one banking

Source: The Star