Conglomerate Keppel sweetens offer for Singapore Press to $2.8 bln (updated)

Hotel Properties

10/11/2021 02:34

(Adds details on consortium)
    Nov 10 (Reuters) - Conglomerate Keppel Corp  KPLM.SI  has
raised its offer to buy Singapore Press Holdings (SPH)
 SPRM.SI , excluding its media business, at a valuation of $2.8
billion, heating up a bidding war with a consortium that
includes firms linked to state investor Temasek Holdings. 
    Singapore's Keppel in a statement late on Tuesday https://bit.ly/3061fqj
 said it is now offering S$2.351 per share to SPH shareholders
in cash plus stock, higher than its initial offer of S$2.099 and
outbidding Cuscaden Peak https://www.reuters.com/article/sph-m-a-cuscaden-idUSKBN2HJ0CG
's S$2.1 per share.
    The improved bid sets up a battle among investors eyeing
SPH's property assets, which include malls, student
accommodation and elderly care facilities.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2RP1CD
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2P909A
    Keppel's revised offer increases its cash component by 20
Singapore cents per share, valuing SPH at about S$3.8 billion.
That represents an 8.8% premium to SPH's last close of S$2.160.
    "While we believe that this is an attractive acquisition,
Keppel will remain disciplined. We ... have made it clear that
this is the final consideration," Keppel Chief Executive Loh
Chin Hua said.
    Trading in shares of Keppel - which also counts Temasek
 TEM.UL  as a major shareholder - SPH and other real estate
investment trusts linked to the two companies were halted on
Wednesday. 
    The Cuscaden Peak consortium comprises a unit of
Singapore-based Hotel Properties Ltd  HPPS.SI , its Managing
Director Ong Beng Seng and subsidiaries of Mapletree Investments
Pte Ltd and CLA Real Estate Holdings, which are independently
managed portfolio companies of Temasek.
    SPH, which has been in talks with Cuscaden since late
October, said https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/Revised%20Privatisation%20Proposal%20for%20SPH%20by%20Keppel%20-%20Media%20Release.ashx?App=Announcement&FileID=690038
 in a separate statement that its shareholders would decide on
Keppel's revised bid by Dec. 8.
    The media and real estate firm holds stakes in a handful of
malls in Singapore and Australia, its own student accommodations
in Britain and Germany, a private nursing home in Singapore and
aged care assets in Japan. 
    
    ($1 = 1.3504 Singapore dollars)

 (Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru and Aradhana
Aravindan in Singapore; Editing by Devika Syamnath and
Ramakrishnan M.)
 ((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/sameer_manekar))