Hili Ventures rebuffed by shareholders and misses delisting target

Updated to include a response by Hili Ventures

Hili Ventures was rebuffed by shareholders in its voluntary offer to acquire control of public shares.

In a company announcement, Hili Ventures said it had managed to take over slightly more than half of the listed public shares (51%) in Hili Properties, missing its target to reach an overall control of 90% of the company’s shares and delisting it from the stock exchange.

Hili Ventures Ltd is the majority shareholder in Hili Properties plc.

While announcing that it had reversed its position to delisting, Hili Ventures said it would continue to pursue its objective of delisting Hili Properties once it succeeds in buying more shares from the public.

By acquiring 51% of the public’s shares, the company reached an overall 87.7% shareholding, just short of the 90% target needed to squeeze out the remaining shareholders, remove its shares from the Malta Stock Exchange, and become private.

According to regulatory rules, once Hili Ventures reaches 90%, it can force the remaining shareholders to sell their shares.

Despite the setback, the company said it was satisfied with the outcome of this voluntary takeover bid.

“We will now continue working on consolidating our ownership through the available channels to continue to optimise our asset management and investment strategy,” the company said.

Through a voluntary offer issued last March, Hili Ventures offered shareholders the option to sell their 100,000,000 shares to the company.

Yet many considered the price offered to be too low, at just €0.24c per share, when they had bought the same shares at €0.27c per share just three years earlier.

The company insisted that it was offering a good deal, saying the price offered was higher than the market price.

According to the latest published financial statements, the company has grown significantly during the past three years. The Net Asset Value (NAV) of the shares reached €0.324c per share by June 2024.

Hili Ventures is now trying to obtain a development permit for a project on the island of Comino. The Planning Authority has already indicated its consent to the project despite receiving a record number of objections.

Following the article’s publication, Hili Ventures sent a right of reply stating, “This was not a share buy-back. The transaction in question was a voluntary public offer made by Hili Ventures Ltd.”

Editor’s note: In our initial story, we erroneously referred to the offer as made by Hili Properties, not its majority shareholder, Hili Ventures.