Platinum to acquire Singapore's PCI for $150m
Platinum Equity has agreed to buy PCI, a Singapore-listed electronics manufacturer owned by local conglomerate Chuan Hup Holdings, for S$203 million ($150 million).
Chuan Hup currently holds 153 million shares in PCI, representing a 77% stake. According to a regulatory filing, Platinum will pay S$1.33 in cash per share for the full holding, a 17% premium to the closing price of S$1.13 on January 3, the day before the acquisition was announced. Trading was halted on January 4. On January 7, the stock opened at S$1.29, where it remained through morning trading.
PCI was founded as a printed circuit board manufacturer in Silicon Valley in 1972, but moved its manufacturing operations to Indonesia in 1990. It currently has manufacturing facilities in Indonesia and China, as well as engineering design and development centers in Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
The company listed on Sesdaq, the former growth-stage board of the Singapore Exchange, in 1992, and moved to the main board in 1995. Chuan Hup acquired a controlling stake in 2011 through a combination of open market transactions and a mandatory cash offer. The firm said it expects to realize a gain of about $69 million from the sale.
PCI provides printed circuit board assembly, user interface panels, and complete box build services for equipment used in the mobile communications, medical, industrial, and automotive industries. According to its most recent annual report, revenue for the year ended June 2018 came to $289 million, up from $199 million the prior year. Over the same period, net profit rose from $10.6 million to $18.2 million.
The PCI deal is the latest in a series of acquisitions by Platinum in Asia's manufacturing space in recent years. Its portfolio includes companies such as Singapore-based electronics component maker Fischer Tech and Chinese precision tool maker Ying Shing, as well as two Chinese manufacturing units owned by Singapore's Broadway Industrial Group focused on the electronics, automotive, and medical sectors.
Currently Platinum has $13 billion in global assets under management. It closed its fourth buyout fund at $6.5 billion in 2017 with a mandate focused largely on industrial sectors such as manufacturing, distribution, transportation and logistics, equipment rental, and metals services.
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