Indonesia's Widjajas Raise Offer for Sinarmas Land

Shares of Sinarmas Land jumped by around 17 percent to 38 cents on May 13, after the Widjaja family upped its offer to take the company private on May 10.

- Kang Wan Chern

Lyon Investments, which is controlled by the Widjajas, one of Indonesia's richest families, raised the price it is willing to pay for the remaining shares of Sinarmas Land by 21 percent to 37.5 cents per share, or $1.6 billion in total, following criticism from minority shareholders that its original offer was too low.

The closing date of the revised offer has also been extended from May 14 to May 29.

Sinarmas Land is one of Indonesia's largest property developers and part of the Widjaja-owned Sinarmas conglomerate, which also controls Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources.

As at May 9, Lyon Investments had already received acceptances from shareholders collectively holding 23.85 percent of the shares in Sinarmas Land, giving it control over 94.15 percent of the company.

At those levels, Sinarmas Land's free float is now below 10 percent, implying that trading of its shares may soon be suspended on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to comply with listing rules.