Opus eyes Bermuda, plans departing ASX

Opus Group is proposing delisting from the ASX and redomicile the company, moving from Australian over to Bermuda, having applied for a place on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Opus, which includes Australian printers CanPrint, Ligare and Mcpherson’s Printing Group (MPG), says its re-domiciliation involves moving all of its capital to newly incorporated Bermudan entity Left Field Printing Group (TopCo) on the basis of three TopCo shares for every one Opus share. TopCo will list on the HKEx, while Opus will be removed from the ASX.

Shareholders are invited to vote on the restructure in September, with the Board of Opus recommending they back the scheme, saying it is in the best interests of the group.

Opus has also given an overview of its plans for expansion of its local printing operations, along with potentially relocating the CanPrint facility, which the company says will streamline operations.

[Related: Opus revenue down 9 per cent]

Opus has said it will purchase additional machinery, with a proposal to buy a new digital press and three binding, and replacing older equipment with three new digital presses, two binding machines and one pre-press device. Further details of where the equipment would be placed are unclear.

The company made revenue of $79.2m in the 12 months up to December 2017, down from $87m the year before, while making a profit of $5.7m, up from $5.5m the prior year.

Lion Rock Group, formerly 1010 Printing Group and a Hong Kong listed company, is a 75 per cent shareholder in Opus. The company is incorporated in Bermuda with limited liability. In addition to Opus in Australia, Lion Rock also owns 1010 Printing in China, and a print management group comprising Asia Pacific Offset, Regent Publishing Services and Oceanic Graphic International.

According to a Frost & Sullivan market research report, in terms of revenue generated last year, Opus is the largest government segment printing services provider within the industry in Australia, ranking fifth in the overall commercial printing market along with being the largest provider in the local book printing industry.

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