London Fund Launches Asia Pacific Wire & Cable (APWC) Complaint

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London Fund Launches Asia Pacific Wire & Cable (APWC) Complaint by Activist Insights

Activist Insight today reported on the following new campaign.

A shareholder of NASDAQ-listed Asia Pacific Wire & Cable says it’s tired of being ignored by management and wants to know what the company is up to.

That’s the message from a letter by London-based LONSIN Capital to the board of directors at APWC, sent on March 9 and seen by Activist Insight. It claims the company is trading at a discount to book value of 83%, with cash alone worth twice the stock’s current price. Profits have turned to losses and a large chunk of cash recently vanished from the company’s balance sheet without adequate explanation, it adds, and while some investors have been bought out at a significant premium, others have had no contact whatsoever.

According to Jonathan Croft, a Portfolio Manager at LONSIN, the investment firm has been trying to understand the company’s business strategy for a while, and while it was able to speak to directors at the company’s annual meeting in October, it hasn’t yet received a reply. Attempts to contact the board or APWC’s investor relations service since then have proved unsuccessful.

As a result, LONSIN is going public and has instructed lawyers at Katsky Korins in New York. “Our concern is to make sure this is not a play to take the company private,” Croft told Activist Insight in an interview, pointing to high listing costs and the minimum threshold for the company’s stock to trade on NASDAQ – not far below its current $1.67.

Croft believes parent company Pacific Electric Wire & Cable, which owns 75% of APWC, would need to reach agreements to buy more than 95% of shares to force a squeeze-out. LONSIN believes it could stop that happening, with its own 3.7% stake and other shareholders it thinks will oppose a buyout at the current stock price.

“If they truly want to go private, they should come out and do it,” says Croft. “We’re letting them know it would be pretty impossible for them to get away with it at a massive discount.”

APWC has been approached for comment.

Asia Pacific Wire & Cable (APWC)

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