Bookmark & Share
ARA Asset Management’s Founder and Group CEO, John Lim, who is leading a group of investors to privatise the firm, has succeeded in obtaining the consent of most of the shareholders, reported the Straits Times.
During a shareholder meeting on Thursday (23 March), 81.16 percent of the current stockholders, who collectively hold 98.64 percent of the shares, voted in favour of ARA’s buyout through a scheme of arrangement.
This surpassed the required minimum – 75 percent of the share value of the voting shareholders – and fulfilled the condition that over half of the stockholders must be present to vote in person or by proxy.
Lim and his partners now only need court approval to delist ARA from the local stock exchange. The other investors consist of the Straits Trading Company, Cheung Kong Property Holdings, China’s Avic Trust and US private equity firm Warburg Pincus. If the deal pushes through, the last two will become new shareholders in ARA.
“We will now seek approval from the High Court of Bermuda for the sanction of the scheme. ARA is now one step closer to our proposed privatisation, which will allow us to access a deeper capital base and further our growth opportunities,” said Lim.
Pursuant to the privatisation, they established a special purpose vehicle, Athena Investment Company (Cayman), which offered to buy each existing ARA share for $1.78 in cash, valuing the firm at approximately $1.76 billion. This share price translates to a premium of 26.2 percent to $1.41, the stock’s closing price on 2 November 2016.
If the court gives its approval, ARA is expected to be delisted from the Singapore Exchange in late-April after paying the current stockholders.
At the same time, Warburg Pincus will hold the biggest stake in ARA at 30.72 percent, followed by Avic Trust at 20.48 percent, Straits Trading Company (20.95 percent), Lim’s JL Investment Group (19.85 percent) and Cheung Kong Property (eight percent).
ARA, which was floated on the SGX in 2007, has around $35.6 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2016.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
Related Articles:
Frasers Commercial Trust’s value estimate lowered on lease uncertainties