Great Eastern has till Oct 23 to explore options to comply with the free float requirements under the Singapore Exchange S68 ’s (SGX) listing manual rules.
The offer for Great Eastern’s shares closed on July 12 after the close of the market. On the same day, Great Eastern announced that the trading of its shares on the SGX will be suspended from 9am on July 15 per listing rules. The general offer by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) resulted in the bank owning 93.32% shares in the insurer, up from 88.44% before.
Great Eastern’s shareholders who have not yet accepted OCBC’s offer may exercise their right to require OCBC to acquire their offer shares at the same price of $25.60 apiece under Section 215(3) of the Companies Act, but less the 45 cents that Great Eastern has declared as dividend for its 1HFY2024 for the six months to end-June. This right will expire on Oct 23.
As the OCBC’s final stake in Great Eastern will only be known after the completion of the exercise of Section 215(3), Great Eastern had to apply to the SGX-ST to seek approval for an extension of time for the latter to consider the options available to it to comply with the free float requirement. The extension was granted by the exchange on Aug 2, announced Great Eastern Holdings G07 .
On May 10, OCBC offered Great Eastern’s shareholders $25.60 per share for the 11.56% stake it did not own.
At the close of June 24, OCBC announced that it received acceptances from 1.48 million Great Eastern shares – or 0.31% - tipping the bank’s stake to 90.16%, bringing its free float below the required 10%.
