OUE extends F&N offer as takeover deadline nears
SINGAPORE: A group led by Overseas Union Enterprise Ltd extended a deadline for a S$13.1bil bid for Fraser & Neave Ltd (F&N) to next Monday, the deadline for final bids for the Singapore property and beverages company.
The OUE-led group on Nov 15 made a S$9.08 per share bid for F&N, topping an earlier S$8.88 a share offer from Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi. Both have until Monday for final offers under Singapore’s takeover rules, according to F&N spokeswoman Elaine Lim.
Charoen agreed to buy a 22% stake in F&N in July, setting off a fight for the company’s soft drink and property assets and prompting the sale of its beer unit to Heineken NV. F&N shares have traded above both offers in a sign that investors expect the bidding war to escalate.
F&N fell 0.5%to close at S$9.68 in Singapore trading yesterday.
OUE extended its deadline to 5.30 pm on Monday, according to a stock exchange statement yesterday. Charoen last week extended his offer to next Tuesday.
OUE, a Singapore-based property company, has teamed with Kirin Holdings Co, Japan’s largest drinks maker, in its bid. OUE would get the company’s property business and Kirin would take the food and beverage unit.
Kirin had agreed to tender its 14.8% stake in F&N, OUE has said. The Japanese brewer, Asia’s biggest beverage maker, will offer S$2.7bil for F&N’s food and beverage business if OUE wins enough support to complete the takeover.
The Thai billionaire agreed to pay S$2.78bil for an initial 22% stake in F&N by acquiring the stock held by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp and its partners. He later acquired more shares to take him near the threshold to make a bid.
Charoen’s offer for F&N valued the rest of the company at about S$8.9bil on Sept 13, the day his TCC assets offered S$8.88 a share for the 69.6% of F&N it didn’t already control.
OUE executive chairman Stephen Riady is a son of Mochtar Riady, who controls Indonesia’s Lippo Group, with businesses ranging from real estate and financial services to food across Asia.
OUE, which gets about 65% of its revenue from hotel operations, was planning at least one investment a year in Singapore to boost property holdings that included office towers, luxury apartments and malls, Stephen Riady said in an interview in August.
Heineken won control of F&N’s brewery unit, the maker of Tiger beer, in a deal that closed in November. – Bloomberg