A Temasek-linked consortium of three property firms on Friday proposed buying media and real estate company Singapore Press Holdings Ltd (SPH) for S$3.34 billion ($2.48 billion), seeking to out-bid conglomerate Keppel Corp.
The consortium, Cuscaden Peak, offered S$2.1 per SPH share in cash, topping Keppel’s cash-plus-share offer of S$2.099.
SPH did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The suitors are seeking access to SPH’s real estate footprint, which includes malls and student accommodation. Both offers are conditional on SPH completing a planned spinoff of its media business.
SPH is in the process of transferring its media business, whose publications include the Straits Times and Business Times, into a not-for-profit company. The money-losing business has struggled in recent years with falling advertising revenue.
SPH holds stakes in a handful of malls in Singapore and Australia, including high-end Paragon in the city-state’s Orchard Road, through a real estate investment trust. It also owns student accommodation in the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as a private nursing home in Singapore.
Trading in shares of SPH, which has a market capitalisation of S$3.16 billion, were halted on Friday morning pending an announcement. The stock closed at S$1.99 on Thursday.
Keppel, which counts state investor Temasek Holdings as a major shareholder, in a separate statement said it would review Cuscaden Peak’s all-cash offer.
The Cuscaden Peak consortium includes a unit of Singapore-based Hotel Properties Ltd, Hotel Properties Managing Director Ong Beng Seng and subsidiaries of Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd and CLA Real Estate Holdings, which are independently managed portfolio companies of Temasek.
Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte is financial adviser to Cuscaden.
Source: Reuters.com