Great Eastern plans delisting with US$700mil OCBC-backed bid
OCBC's offer is 17.8% higher than the S$25.60 a share cash offer made about a year ago. (EPA Images pic)
SINGAPORE : Great Eastern Holdings Ltd, is seeking to delist with a S$900 million (US$700 million) bid from Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp for the rest of the shares it doesn't already own, marking the fourth attempt by the lender to take full control.
OCBC is offering S$30.15 a share for the 6.28% of Great Eastern it doesn't yet own, the bank said in a statement today, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report of the higher offer.
The price is final and OCBC has no intention of making another bid in the foreseeable future, it said.
A successful takeover would be a win for OCBC's chief executive officer Helen Wong, who took the top job in 2021.
Singapore's second-largest lender has made three bids since 2004 that failed to fully take over the Singapore insurer.
The level it had obtained after the last bid wasn't sufficient to delist the stock nor for a compulsory takeover.
Wong today reiterated OCBC's ambition to build a financial group that will lead the region's wealth management industry.
OCBC's offer is 17.8% higher than the S$25.60 a share cash offer made about a year ago.
It's at a discount however to Great Eastern's 2024 embedded value of S$38.08 a share, a metric that's been used to value other insurers.
The insurer's shareholders will be able to vote on this delisting proposal, alongside another proposal to resume trading of shares via the issuance of new shares, at a meeting to be convened.
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