Razer execs offer to take firm private, valuing it at $3.2 billion

(Reuters) -Razer Inc said on Thursday that a group led by its top executives proposed to take the gaming hardware maker private in a deal that values the Hong Kong-listed company at HK$24.70 billion ($3.17 billion).

The group led by Chairman Min-Liang Tan and non-executive director Kaling Lim, who own around 57% of Razer, are offering HK$2.82 a share for the remainder of the company and the offer is final, Razer said.

The consortium includes private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, it said.

Razer shares slid nearly 8% after the announcement to HK$2.46, underperforming the broader Hong Kong market that gained around half a percent.

Reuters reported last month that the consortium was looking at offering up to HK$4 a share for Razer.

David Blennerhassett, an analyst at Ballingal Investment Advisors, said in a note published on SmartKarma that the offer price is fair based on an average premium of 34.6% to the last closing price of Hong Kong-listed companies offered so far this year.

The consortium believes that Razer, with headquarters in the United States and Singapore, has suffered from low trading volumes and has been undervalued in Hong Kong.

The offer price marks a premium of around 44% to Razer's closing price on Oct. 28, the day before it went into a trading halt to announce that the chairman and others were talking to the company about a deal. It is also a premium of 5.6% to Wednesday's close.

Razer went public at HK$3.88 per share in Hong Kong in 2017 in a stellar debut powered by strong retail demand for new technology stocks.

But its share price more than halved last month from this year's peak of HK$3.36 in February.

Credit Suisse is acting the financial adviser to the consortium, while Razer's board will appoint an independent adviser to assess the buyout proposal, the filing said.

Founded in the United States and Singapore in 2005, Razer has expanded into gaming laptops and keyboards and other accessories.

It swung to a record net profit of $31.3 million in the first half of 2021, riding a gaming boom as lockdowns kept people at home from a net loss of $17.7 million a year earlier.

The United States accounted for 42% of first-half revenue.

($1 = 7.7930 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru and Kane Wu in Hong Kong; editing by Rashmi Aich and Jason Neely)

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