CapitaLand stake in CMA crosses 80% mark
Property player moves closer to taking shopping mall firm private
Published on May 22, 2014 1:22 AM
Shopping malls in the CapitaMalls Asia portfolio include Ion Orchard (above) and Raffles City. CapitaLandâs initial offer of $2.22 a share came under fire for its small premium of 1.2 times CMAâs book value. -- PHOTO: ION ORCHARD
By Cheryl Ong
CAPITALAND has taken a big step towards its aim of delisting CapitaMalls Asia (CMA), after crossing the 80 per cent level in the shopping mall firm since it raised its bid last week.
It has amassed an 81.3 per cent stake in CMA, or about 3.17 billion shares, as of Tuesday, the developer said yesterday.
This was after accounting for the open market purchases it had made and acceptances of its offer that amount to about 150.4 million shares.
The announcement follows CapitaLand's move on Friday to raise its buyout offer from $2.22 apiece to a final price of $2.35 apiece to take CMA private.
It said then that its offer was unconditional - in other words, no longer dependent on securing acceptances that would lift its holding above 90 per cent.
At that time, CapitaLand said its stake in CMA was 73.9 per cent.
"CapitaLand is committed to delisting CMA and we are confident that we will achieve this objective," said Mr Lim Ming Yan, president and group chief executive of CapitaLand.
Mr Lim, also a CMA director, disposed of 99,774 CMA shares at $2.35 apiece on May 16, a regulatory filing with the Singapore Exchange on Tuesday showed.
Before raising its offer, CapitaLand had also bumped up its stake in CMA from 65.3 per cent to 70.4 per cent through acquisitions on the open market.
However, it still has to secure an 8.7 per cent stake to obtain the 90 per cent acceptances needed to delist CMA.
Bloomberg filings showed that about 4.7 million CMA shares were traded yesterday - well down from the 48.8 million shares that changed hands on Tuesday, ahead of yesterday's announcement.
Outstanding buy orders for CMA were for about 546.2 million shares, outweighing the outstanding sell orders for about 25.3 million shares at the close of yesterday's trading session.
CapitaLand's initial offer of $2.22 a share came under fire for its small premium of 1.2 times CMA's book value, given that investors had paid 1.55 times the book value at $2.12 a share when the shopping mall firm listed four years ago.
CapitaLand said it took into account several "considerations" from a report by independent financial adviser Deutsche Bank in its revised offer.
Deutsche Bank said in its report to CMA's independent directors that the $2.22 offer was "fair and reasonable", but noted that it was at a discount of 2.5 to 5.4 per cent to CMA's adjusted net asset value of $2.28 to $2.35.
Investors have till June 9 to accept CapitaLand's offer, but those who have tendered their shares at $2.22 will automatically receive payment at the higher price.
CMA shares closed unchanged at $2.35 yesterday, while CapitaLand's shares closed two cents up at $3.14.
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