United Engineers owns a large portfolio of properties including shopping centres, hotels and condominiums. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
After securing clarifications on the procedures for making a simultaneous bid for two companies from Singapore’s takeover council, a consortium including China-based developer Yanlord Land Group and Perennial Real Estate Holdings is looking to announce an agreement to acquire the stakes of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. in United Engineers as well as its WBL Corp. subsidiary, reported Bloomberg citing sources with knowledge on the matter.
Thereafter, the group plans to make an offer for the rest of United Engineers, said the sources, who did not want to be identified.
Shares of Yanlord, Perennial and United Engineers were halted from Singapore trading on Wednesday (12 July), pending announcements.
An agreement would cap OCBC’s years-long effort to offload its stake in United Engineers, whose properties include mixed-used development UE BizHub City and shopping centres such as Rochester Mall.
“Investment in this portfolio allows someone to have a strong, operational platform in the highly competitive and well-capitalised Singapore market,” said Cushman & Wakefield regional executive director of capital markets Priyaranjan Kumar.
“There is in place high quality, defensive cash flow, which can be improved through active asset management.”
Meanwhile, OCBC and its insurance unit revealed Wednesday that they are in the final stages of discussion for the sale of their combined stakes at United Engineers and WBL.
Under Singapore rules, acquiring their stakes would lead to a mandatory takeover offer for United Engineers.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
