The Straits Times / The Business Times News on OSIM

Ron Sim places out 25m OSIM shares

Buyers, including Temasek, pay $1.56 a share, 4.9% off yesterday's closing price

OSIM International founder and chief executive officer Ron Sim has placed 25 million of his shares in the company to global institutional investors, including Temasek Holdings. The placement, arranged by JP Morgan Securities, was transacted at $1.56 per share, representing a 4.9 per cent discount to OSIM's $1.64 per share closing price on the stock market yesterday.

OSIM said that the placement will boost the stock's liquidity and widen the company's investor base. Mr Sim remains OSIM's single largest shareholder after the placement with 235.35 million shares, representing about 52.45 per cent of the company.

Early last month, the retailer of healthy lifestyle products, together with Temasek Capital and private equity firm JW Childs, completed the acquisition of United States speciality retailer Brookstone. This creates an avenue for OSIM to penetrate the US market using Brookstone.

As Merrill Lynch, which recently initiated coverage of OSIM with a 'buy' call and a target price of $2 a share, said in a Nov 4 report: 'Thanks to its recent acquisition of Brookstone, OSIM has an immediate channel to sell to higher-income US consumers via Brookstone's network of 292 retail stores.'

In OSIM's statement to the Singapore Exchange yesterday, Mr Sim said the group also continues to build sustainable growth in China and all key markets. 'I am pleased with the strong reception from major global institutional investors, including Temasek Holdings and other major international institutions. This reflects their confidence in the significant deepening of our healthy lifestyle business and a broadening of our key markets. We believe we are well on our way to building OSIM into a global brand.'