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So far Metrica Team has created 23 blog entries.

Metrica Partners will not tender its funds’ shares in SK Chemicals to SK Discovery

  • SK Discovery’s tender offer price is very low, representing a 74% discount to net assets.
  • SK Chemicals has still not adequately compensated its shareholders for the split-off of SK Bioscience. The Korean regulator has recognised how split-offs can hurt the interests of investors.
  • Only a wholesale restructuring can restore the market’s trust in SK Chemicals.

Please refer to the dedicated website for more information.

By |2022-09-13T08:10:18+08:0013 September 2022|Open letters|

Metrica calls for a strategic review at SK Chemicals

  • Metrica welcomes the recent value-improving initiatives announced by SK Chemicals.
  • However, these measures have had only a very limited impact on the share price discount, which still exceeds 80%.
  • Metrica calls for SK Chemicals to launch a formal strategic review within the next two months to consider further measures to address the discount, up to and including a sale or spin-off of SK Bioscience.

Please refer to the dedicated website for more information.

By |2021-12-15T10:48:35+08:0015 December 2021|Open letters|

Metrica Partners urges SK Chemicals to sell SK Bioscience shares upon the lockup expiry

  • The board of SK Chemicals seems unconcerned with its shares trading at an 83% discount to net asset value. In Metrica’s view, the board has a fiduciary duty to care about its share price.
  • The company should address the discount by selling a stake in its subsidiary SK Bioscience upon the IPO lock-up expiry of 18 September and distributing the proceeds to shareholders.
  • SK Chemicals can pay a special dividend of 1.3x its share price while still retaining 50% ownership in SK Bioscience as well as 100% ownership of its profitable chemical and pharmaceutical businesses.

For more details, please refer to the dedicated website.

By |2021-09-08T08:30:28+08:008 September 2021|Open letters|

Metrica Partners will not tender into the LINE Joint Tender Offer and urges other shareholders to consider following

Metrica Partners Pte. Ltd. (“Metrica”) is the manager of, and adviser to multiple funds (the “Metrica funds”) that own shares in LINE Corp. (“LINE”, Securities Code: 3938). LINE is currently the subject of a tender offer (“the Joint Tender Offer”) by SoftBank Corp. (“SoftBank”, Securities Code: 9434) and NAVER Corporation (‘NAVER”, Securities Code: 035420), which is to be followed by a business integration with Z Holdings (Securities Code: 4689) (the “Business Integration”).

Metrica will not be tendering the shares held by the Metrica Funds into the Joint Tender Offer, and furthermore, it intends to dissent to the subsequent Share Consolidation and exercise its appraisal rights:

  • Metrica considers that the procedures leading up to the LINE Board’s decision to recommend the Joint Tender Offer fall short of the required standard of fairness.
    • The Special Committee has not demonstrated a sufficient degree of independence from the transaction.
    • One of the acquirers ultimately ends up with much higher value from the Business Integration than the price offered to minority shareholders of LINE. The excess value is a tangential benefit deriving more from financial engineering rather than from synergies related to the Business Integration, in Metrica’s view.
    • The other acquirer is a major client of the financial advisor, which may affect the perceived independence of its valuation of the target company.
    • The deal is missing a minimum acceptance condition, depriving shareholders of an important opportunity to exercise their rights.
  • Metrica believes that the Joint Tender Offer price of JPY 5,380 is inadequate.
    • It represents a very low premium when compared with historical precedents.
    • It is below the mid-point of the financial advisor’s DCF valuation, which does not incorporate any projected synergies.
    • The valuation has not been updated to reflect the pandemic’s favourable impact on LINE’s business, nor the substantial increase in comparable company valuation multiples.
    • The joint acquirers are privatising the company just before the point at which it turns profitable on an operating basis, according to management’s own forecasts.

Metrica’s reasoning behind the above conclusions is as follows: (more…)

By |2020-08-25T09:14:58+08:0024 August 2020|Open letters|

Engagement update

We have two situations which are public. The first is NBI Industrial Finance in India, a company which owns shares of a major listed cement company worth almost five times its market cap and which carries on almost no other business.

This month, we sent an open letter to the board which we also released to the press and uploaded to a dedicated website (link).

The letter was structured as a list of questions, in line with our policy of first seeking explanations for corporate behaviour before making our own suggestions.

In the first instance, we are asking: (more…)

By |2020-08-12T14:52:09+08:005 August 2020|Thought leadership|

Metrica Partners sends letter to board of NBI Industrial Finance

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200719005001/en/Metrica-Partners-Sends-Letter-Board-NBI-Industrial

  • Requesting explanation for zero dividend payout despite extremely strong balance sheet
  • Asking why company persists with a structure that causes double taxation for shareholders
  • Seeking to understand purpose of listing with almost 95% of assets in Shree Cement shares

SINGAPORE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Metrica Partners Pte. Ltd. (“Metrica”) manages investment funds that are among the largest minority shareholders of NBI Industrial Finance Co. Ltd. (“NBI”, NSE: NBIFIN, Bloomberg: NBI IN).

NBI is a Shree Cement (“Shree”, NSE: SHREECEM, Bloomberg: SRCM IN) group company and shares its headquarters with Shree. According to Metrica’s research, almost 95% of NBI’s assets are represented by its holding in Shree and NBI has no debt. (more…)

By |2020-07-20T11:18:14+08:0020 July 2020|Open letters|
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