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Acquisition expands company's investment portfolio in People's Republic of ChinaReco Bay Pte Ltd ("Reco Bay"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Recosia Pte Ltd, today announced its intention to make a conditional cash offer of $1.65 per share (the “Offer”) to acquire all the ordinary shares in Ipoh Limited (“Ipoh”). The Offer values Ipoh at approximately $260 million.
Based on Ipoh’s weighted average share price of $1.51 for the week ended 7 September 2001, the Offer represents a:
Premium of 14.0% to Ipoh’s weighted average share price for the week ended 7 September 2001 ie. before the offer was announced; and
Premium of 16.2% to Ipoh’s weighted average share price during the 3 months preceding 7 September 2001¹.
Reco Bay, through its associate Reco Park Pte Ltd, currently has a relevant interest in 31,842,941 shares in Ipoh, representing a 20.24% shareholding in Ipoh.
Richard Teo, Director of Reco Bay, said: “Our Offer represents an opportunity for all Ipoh shareholders to realise a cash premium over recent market prices for their shares and grants them an opportunity to exit their holdings in an illiquid stock. The Offer is in the form of a straightforward and available cash consideration, being made at a full and fair price.”
Reco Bay is a company incorporated in Singapore as an investment vehicle and registered as a foreign company in Australia. The principal activity of Reco Bay is to hold real estate investments. The shares in Reco Bay are wholly held by Recosia Pte Ltd (also incorporated in Singapore) which is an asset holding company managed by GIC Real Estate Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Pte Ltd.
Dr Seek Ngee Huat, President of GIC Real Estate Pte Ltd, said: “We see this as an exciting opportunity to recognise greater value in the assets held by Ipoh. These assets will sit well within our global portfolio of real estate holdings. If our Offer is successful, we will work with management to maximise the potential of the key assets.”
Ipoh’s core assets include the Queen Victoria Building, The Strand retail arcade and The Galeries Victoria, all in Sydney’s Central Business District. Other significant assets include a portfolio of ten properties in Leigh Street, Adelaide and The Old Bank Buildings in Wellington, New Zealand. Ipoh has announced a program to divest other non-core assets.
A Bidder’s Statement, which outlines the Offer in detail, will be lodged with ASIC this afternoon (14 September 2001). It is intended that this Bidder’s Statement will be sent to Ipoh shareholders beginning 28 September 2001. The Offer will remain open for one month and is currently scheduled to close at 7.00pm Sydney time on 29 October 2001, unless extended or withdrawn.
The Offer is subject to a number of conditions, including that Reco Bay obtains a relevant interest in more than 50% (by number) of the shares in Ipoh during, or at the end of, the Offer period, the All Ordinaries Index of ASX not falling more than 10% of the level at the close of trading on 13 September 2001 and that no announcement is made of another superior bid or similar transaction (or intention to do so).
The Offer is also subject to Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval and other standard conditions relating to regulatory actions and prescribed occurrences.
Reco Bay has secured a specific advance loan facility of A$220 million to fund its obligations under the Offer.
For further information, please contact:
Andrew Donohoe
Burson-Marstellar
Tel: 02 9928 1537
Mobile: 0410 579 695
Email: andrew_donohoe@au.bm.com
Andrew Head
Burson-Marstellar
Tel: 02 9928 1588
Mobile: 0411 268 001
Email: andrew_head@au.bm.com
¹ The premium has been calculated based on the daily closing price of Ipoh Shares weighted by the total daily traded volume of Ipoh Shares. As Ipoh Shareholders are entitled to retain the dividend of 7.5 cents declared by Ipoh on 11 September 2001, the amount of the dividend has been added to the offer price before calculating the premium.
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