Temasek-linked consortium makes $2.5 bln rival bid for Singapore Press (updated)

Hotel Properties

29/10/2021 05:55

(Adds details of SPH's real estate and media businesses)
    Oct 29 (Reuters) - A Temasek-linked consortium of three
property firms on Friday proposed buying media and real estate
company Singapore Press Holdings Ltd (SPH)  SPRM.SI  for S$3.34
billion ($2.48 billion), seeking to out-bid conglomerate Keppel
Corp  KPLM.SI .
    The consortium, Cuscaden Peak, offered S$2.1 per SPH share
in cash, topping Keppel's cash-plus-share offer of S$2.099.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nSNZ22SLLr  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2P909A
    SPH did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
    The suitors are seeking access to SPH's real estate
footprint, which includes malls and student accommodation. Both
offers are conditional on SPH completing a planned spinoff of
its media business.
    SPH is in the process of transferring its media business,
whose publications include the Straits Times and Business Times,
into a not-for-profit company. The money-losing business has
struggled in recent years with falling advertising revenue. 
    SPH holds stakes in a handful of malls in Singapore and
Australia, including high-end Paragon in the city-state's
Orchard Road, through a real estate investment trust. It also
owns student accommodation in the United Kingdom and Germany, as
well as a private nursing home in Singapore.
    Trading in shares of SPH, which has a market capitalisation
of S$3.16 billion, were halted on Friday morning pending an
announcement. The stock closed at S$1.99 on Thursday. 
    Keppel, which counts state investor Temasek Holdings
 TEM.UL  as a major shareholder, in a separate statement said it
would review Cuscaden Peak's all-cash offer.
    The Cuscaden Peak consortium includes a unit of
Singapore-based Hotel Properties Ltd  HPPS.SI , Hotel Properties
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.
    Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte is financial adviser to
Cuscaden.
    ($1 = 1.3442 Singapore dollars)

 (Reporting by Tejaswi Marthi in Bengaluru and Aradhana
Aravindan in Singapore; Additional reporting by Nikhil Kurian
Nainan in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
 ((NikhilKurian.Nainan@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter:
@NikhilKurianN))