KUALA LUMPUR: Pimpinan Ehsan Bhd (PEB) today signed a heads of agreement (HoA) with renewable energy company reNIKOLA Sdn Bhd (reNIKOLA), Boumhidi Abdelali (Boumhidi Adel) and Tengku Zaiton Sultan Abu Bakar for the acquisition of five companies under the reNIKOLA group.
The company are reNIKOLA (Arau) Sdn Bhd, reNIKOLA (Gebeng) Sdn Bhd, reNIKOLA (Pekan) Sdn Bhd, reNIKOLA Solar Sdn Bhd and RE Gebeng BKH Sdn Bhd.
The acquisition amount will be determined at a later date, PEB said in a statement, and will be satisfied via issuance of new PEB shares at an issue price of RM1.07 per share.
Both PEB and the parties will enter into a definitive share sale agreement for the acquisition in due course.
reNIKOLA group of companies are involved in renewable energy generation and will have a combined portfolio of approximately 418 megawatt peak (MWp) capacity of solar assets upon completion across 4 sites in Kedah, Pahang and Perlis.
PEB executive chairman Tan Sri Rozali Ismail the acquisition is a strategic move for the company's regularisation plan as it enables the PEB the access to the fast-growing renewable energy sector and its sizeable portfolio of solar assets.
"We believe this new business will fuel growth and contribute sustainable recurring earning streams to the company," he said in a statement.
Presently, PEB is a cash company without any core business and and has total cash of RM70.32 million as at 30 September 2020.
It is undertaking the acquisition to regularise its condition as a cash company, enabling the existing shareholders participate in the new business of renewable energy with positive prospects.
The acquisition is subject to approvals from the Securities Commission, Bursa Malaysia, Energy Commission, Tenaga Nasional Bhd and shareholders of PEB at an upcoming extraordinary general meeting.
PEB also has received notice of unconditional mandatory take-over offer (MGO) from Pitahaya (M) Sdn Bhd (Pitahaya) after Pitahaya together with the parties acquired a total of 45.29 million shares representing approximately 65.5 per cent stake in PEB.
reNIKOLA director Lim Beng Guan is deemed as the ultimate offeror.
Pitahaya is offering RM1.07 per ordinary share in PEB, to be satisfied entirely in cash, representing the highest price paid by Pitahaya for the purchase of the PEB shares.
Pitahaya intends to maintain the listing status of PEB on the main market of Bursa Malaysia.
Lim said reNIKOLA intention is to transform PEB into a leading pure-play renewable energy company in Malaysia, and possibly in the region.
"The plan is to first expand our solar portfolio and gradually expand our footprints in different verticals within the green energy sector.
"We aim to grow our renewable energy assets portfolio to be the largest in Malaysia. Having PEB with reNIKOLA combined will accelerate the transformation plan as we will have approximately 418MWp of solar assets upon completion, in our stable.
"For the longer term, we are exploring opportunities to expand regionally starting from our neighbouring countries to the wider Asia where there is strong demand for clean energy," he said.
The offer document shall be posted out no later than 21 days from the date of the notice of MGO, while the offer will be open for acceptance for a period of at least 21 days from the posting date of the offer document.
reNIKOLA managing director Boumhidi Adel said the prospects of the domestic renewable energy industry are flourishing, and it has been growing remarkably in recent years driven by the national renewable energy policies.
Looking at the current operating landscape, the solar industry is relatively fragmented, he said.
"As the industry grows larger in size, we expect market consolidation to follow through and we intend to partake in that to scale up our operations.
"There will be more solar assets from the previous large-scale solar programmes coming on-stream which translate into investment opportunities.
"Hence, this is an opportune time to better position PEB to capitalise on the robust growth potentials," he said.