Here’s how a $23.5m trading error led to a higher offer price for OSIM

Almost 17m shares were bought at a higher price.

Ron Sim will have to shell out millions more in his bid to privatise his lifestyle company OSIM, all due to a costly trading mistake.

Credit Suisse, who is acting on behalf of Sim, revealed on Monday that it had “inadvertently” purchased almost 17 million ex-dividend shares between prices of $1.37 and $1.39.

On Friday, April 8, Credit Suisse revealed that it had purchased 2.449 million shares at a price of $1.38, 9.9 million shares at a price of $1.385, and 4.626 million shares at a price of $1.39

The deals were made although Sim’s revised offer dated April 5 stated that no shares should have been purchased for and on behalf at a price above $1.37 on an ex-dividend basis.

“These Shares were purchased under the impression that the purchases were within the revised Offer Price as stated in the Revised Offer Announcement,” Credit Suisse said in a statement to the local bourse.

As a result, Sim was forced to hike his offer price to $1.39 for ex-dividend shares, and $1.41 for cum-dividend shares. A revised offer was released on Saturday, April 9.

The Singapore Code on Takeovers and Mergers states that if an offer is revised, all shareholders who had previously agreed to the original offer must receive the revised consideration.