Widjaja family moves to take Sinarmas Land private

Offer values Singapore-listed developer at $1.32 billion; shares jump on the news

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An entity controlled by Indonesia's billionaire Widjaja family has made a voluntary unconditional cash offer for all the shares in Sinarmas Land that it does not already own at 31 cents apiece.

The offer on March 27 values the Singapore-listed property developer at $1.32 billion.

The offeror, Lyon Investments – which counts executive chairman Franky Oesman Widjaja, chief executive officer Muktar Widjaja and Ms Margaretha Natalia Widjaja among its directors – currently holds about 70.3 per cent of the total number of issued shares in Sinarmas Land.

Shares of Sinarmas Land jumped on the news, rising as much as 23.6 per cent to 34 cents on March 28, before closing at 32 cents, up 16.4 per cent.

The offer price represents a 12.7 per cent premium over Sinarmas Land's last traded price of 27.5 cents per share on March 24, before the company called for a trading halt on March 25 before the market opened.

It also represents a premium of about 17.1 per cent, 5.6 per cent and 14.6 per cent over the volume-weighted average price of the shares over the last one-, three- and 12-month periods, respectively.

However, the offer price is at a 73.9 per cent discount to Sinarmas Land's net asset value of $1.19 per share as at June 30, 2024.

The offeror said the trading liquidity of the shares on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in the past year has generally been thin, and that the offer allows shareholders to "realise a clean cash exit at a premium".