Yesterday's Singapore Business Times carried a front page report on the abject failure of the Time dotCom initial public offering (IPO).

The IPO was undersubscribed by 75 percent - i.e. only 25 percent of the Time dotCom shares offered were taken up. The report said that the subscription rate would plummet to about 10 percent if the placement of 84.2 million shares to certain investors and a turnkey contractor is stripped out of the subscribed portion.

As a result of the IPO, Time dotCom will receive RM471.4 million. It had hoped to raise RM1.89 billion. A shortfall, in other words, of around RM1.4 billion.

Not to worry. According to the report, the underwriters of the IPO, Commerce International Merchant Bankers and the Affin group, are now saddled with some 90 percent of the excess shares. The report said that the underwriters will place out some of the excess shares to government-linked funds and agencies at the IPO price of RM3.30 per share.

In any case, Time dotCom will get its full RM1.89 billion, courtesy of Bumiputra-Commerce Bank (the parent of Commerce International Merchant Bankers) and the Affin group. The shares will, for this exercise, be valued at the full RM3.30 per share, in spite of the global price meltdown of telcos and dotcoms and the fact that the RM3.30 price translates into a prospective PER (price-earnings ratio) of 55 sen (cf Telekom Malaysia's PER of about 40 sen).

So, as the report puts it: "The dismal IPO will not scuttle the debt restructuring exercise of Time dotCom and parent Time Engineering as the shares were fully underwritten. Time dotCom will be one of the few telcos in a net cash position after the IPO."

Strange how this seems to echo Naluri Bhd. That company is now cash-rich after selling its stake in MAS back to the government at RM8 per share. In fact, a report in the Singapore newspapers said that Naluri will be in a comfortable plus cash position of around RM800 million after it receives payment for the sale of its stake in MAS, and that it is looking to invest this money in promising areas.

Wonders will never cease. I am just waiting to see how Time dotCom shares will open when they debut on the KLSE next month. I think the shares will nosedive to way below the IPO price of RM3.30. But, then, what do I know?