Symphony House eyes Ranhill RTO by year-end

SHAH ALAM: Symphony House Bhd, which is going through a reverse takeover (RTO) undertaken by Ranhill Holdings Sdn Bhd, aims to obtain all approvals for the exercise by November or December this year and for the new company (Ranhill) to list in February 2015.
Acting chairman and group chief executive Tan Sri Azman Yahya (pix) said over the next three to four months, it will be expecting approvals from the Securities Commission, the High Court and will also schedule an EGM to get shareholders' approval.
Ranhill will inject RM800 million worth of water and power assets in Symphony under the exercise. In essence, it provides Symphony with an opportunity to benefit from businesses with more robust growth prospects and more particularly Ranhill group's experience in water, power and oil and gas businesses as well as the steady stream of cashflow from its contracts and concessions.
On diversifying into the water and power business, Azman said it is a solution to the issues that Symphony had been facing for the last few years.
"We think it's a better business, that has some scale. We like water and IPP (independent power producer) because it's steady and regulated. Everything is locked in, in terms of take-up rate and input," Azman told reporters after Symphony's AGM here yesterday.
On top of that, he said there is also opportunity to venture into oil and gas, as well as being able to benefit from Ranhill's growing water concessions in China, Vietnam and Thailand.
Symphony, which sold units Symphony BPO Solutions Sdn Bhd, Xen Solutions Sdn Bhd and Symphony Xen Solutions Pte Ltd, will hang on to Symphony HRS Sdn Bhd until it gets a buyer for it. Symphony has been trying to hive off Symphony HRS for the last two years.
The remaining business of Symphony, the corporate services business, will be taken private.
"It (corporate services) is steady but it's not a business that will excite the market. It has limited growth," said Azman.
He said Symphony and Ranhill were brought together by CIMB Investment Bank Bhd.