Yanlord, Perennial's offer for Singapore's United Engineers fails (updated)

Oxley Holdings

20/09/2017 04:27

* Shareholders not enthused by offer from Yanlord-led 
consortium 
    * Oxley built up over 14 pct stake in United Engineers 
    * United Engineers shares fall 1.5 pct in early trade 
 
 (Recasts and adds details) 
    By Anshuman Daga 
    SINGAPORE, Sept 20 (Reuters) - A plan to acquire Singapore's 
United Engineers Ltd  UTES.SI  by Yanlord Land Group  YNLG.SI  
and Perennial Real Estate Holdings  PERE.SI  that valued the 
century-old property group and a stake in a subsidiary at $1.4 
billion has failed on low shareholder acceptance. 
    The consortium agreed in July to buy a one-third stake in 
United Engineers owned by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp  
 OCBC.SI  and its group companies at S$2.6 per share, triggering 
a mandatory offer for the remaining shares - a deal that was set 
to be one of the biggest property takeovers in Singapore in 
recent years.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1K4471 
    After the S$1.83 billion ($1.4 billion) offer was announced  
below market price at the time, Singapore property firm Oxley 
Holdings  OXHL.SI  swooped in and accumulated a stake of more 
than 14 percent in the target company from the open market at 
above S$2.6 per share. 
    The offer was extended twice but in the end it only received 
shareholder acceptances representing just 1.4 percent of United 
Engineers' ordinary shares, Yanlord, a China-based real estate 
developer and Singapore's Perennial said in a joint statement 
late on Tuesday. 
    On Wednesday, United Engineers' shares fell 1.5 percent to 
S$2.7. 
    The Yanlord-led group, however, did complete a purchase of 
OCBC and its group firms' roughly one-third stakes in United 
Engineers and its property firm WBL Corp. 
    Separately, United Engineers said its chairman, group 
managing director and directors had resigned and it had made new 
appointments, but did not elaborate on the reasons. 
    United Engineers' property businesses are located mainly in 
Singapore and China. Yanlord and Perennial also mainly own and 
manage sizeable portfolios in the same countries. 
($1 = 1.3461 Singapore dollars) 
 
 (Reporting by Anshuman Daga in Singapore; Additional reporting 
by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) 
 ((Ambar.Warrick@thomsonreuters.com; +91-80-6749-6625; Reuters 
Messaging: ambar.warrick.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: UNITED ENG M&A/