GE Minority Shareholders to Vote for Delisting or Trading Resumption

OCBC Will Make Exit Offer for Insurer of $30.15 Per Share if Delisting Gets Nod

- Sheila Chiang

Great Eastern Holdings' minority shareholders will be able to vote on the delisting of the insurance company or resumption of trading, nine months after its shares were suspended from trading on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

If they vote to delist, OCBC will make a $900 million exit offer for Great Eastern, or $30.15 per share, for the remaining 6.28 per cent of the shares it does not own. This is up from its original $25.60 per share offer in May 2024.

OCBC's exit offer has been assessed as fair and reasonable by Ernst & Young, the independent financial adviser (IFA) appointed by Great Eastern. According to SGX listing rules, an offer must be both fair and reasonable before a company can delist.

An RHB research analyst told The Straits Times that there is a favourable outlook for the offer this time.

"Given that the offer is considered fair and reasonable by the independent financial adviser, offers exit multiples that appear in line with peers, and comes at a 17.8 per cent premium to the previous offer price, there is a good chance the offer could succeed this time," the analyst said.

OCBC in May 2024 launched a $1.4 billion bid to privatise Great Eastern by acquiring the remaining 11.56 per cent stake it did not own at $25.60 per share.

However, the bank's accumulated stake by the end of the offer in July 2024, at 93.7 per cent, was insufficient for it to compulsorily acquire the rest of Great Eastern's shares.

Some minority shareholders refused to accept the $25.60 per share offer, saying it undervalued the company. An IFA also concluded that at those levels, the offer was unfair but reasonable.

Great Eastern lost its required 10 per cent minimum free float, resulting in the trading suspension of the insurer's shares.