The former chairman and executive director of Hong Kong-listed casino developer Shin Hwa World Ltd, Yang Zhihui, is no longer the largest substantial shareholder in the firm following its completion of a rights issue.
His interest is reduced from just over 29 percent, to just under 10 percent. Public shareholders have been diluted to 26.45 percent, from the original 36.16 percent, following the rights issue.
That is according to a Monday filing Shin Hwa World lodged with the Hong Kong bourse. The firm is the promoter of Jeju Shinhwa World (pictured), a complex with a foreigner-only casino in Jeju, South Korea.
In the Monday filing, Shin Hwa World said it estimated the net proceeds from the rights issue totalled HKD258.6 million (US$33.1 million). The firm conducted the exercise on the basis of two rights shares for every one adjusted share, at a subscription price of HKD0.26 per rights share.
The 1,014,300,462 rights shares on offer were all taken up via the subscription process, Shin Hwa World said in the Monday filing. The number of adjusted shares in the firm has increased to 1,521,450,693, in aggregate, following the move.
After the completion of the rights issue, an entity called Landing International Ltd – the latter with issued share capital entirely held by Mr Yang – now holds approximately 9.74 percent of the issued shares of Shin Hwa World, the Monday filing said. Prior to the exercise, Mr Yang had been the biggest substantial shareholder in Shin Hwa World Ltd, with 29.21-percent.
The Shin Hwa World Ltd entity’s most substantial shareholders are now Pauline Lam and Zhang Tingting, with respectively 17.96-percent and 16.67-percent.
Monday’s filing said the underwriter and or the 16 subscribers procured by the underwriters, have a 29.18 percent stake in Shin Hwa World following the rights issue exercise.
Shin Hwa World said previously that the rights issue was necessary due to the firm’s “imminent funding need” to “stay competitive” in its gaming and leisure business.
That was ccording to its late-June prospectus on the rights issue. The same document said the firm had considered debt financing as a means to raise funds, but flagged it could create an “additional interest burden” and “pressure on the liquidity” of the firm, and so was regarded as a “less beneficial” route.
Mr Yang had retired from the chairman and executive director position in Shin Hwa World in late June, 2023.
