(Reuters) -Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp on Monday said that it has no intention to make another offer to buy the rest of Great Eastern in the future in the event shareholders opted to not delist the insurer from the Singapore bourse.
OCBC was responding to a media report saying that it still can propose to take Great Eastern private when its non-voting shares are due in five years if the latest delisting proposal by Great Eastern cannot be achieved in an EGM on July 8.
OCBC, Singapore’s second largest lender, said in a stock exchange filing that it has no intention to convert its non-voting shares to ordinary shares on or after five years as it would result in Great Eastern losing its free float again.
OCBC would opt to receive the non-voting shares to help restore the free float and a resumption in trading of Great Eastern if the delisting proposal by the insurer is not achieved.
Great Eastern on June 6 proposed to delist from the domestic bourse by way of its largest shareholder OCBC offering S$900 million ($696.27 million) to buy the rest of the insurer it does not already own.
Trading in Singapore-based Great Eastern’s shares was suspended on July 15, 2024, after its free float fell below 10% following an offer by OCBC to acquire an 11.56% stake at S$25.60 apiece in May 2024.
OCBC had obtained acceptance from some shareholders and currently owns 93.72% of Great Eastern.
“Delisting GEH is a long-term strategic goal of OCBC,” OCBC said, referring Great Eastern as GEH.
It said it is satisfied with its 93.72% economic interests since October 2024 regardless of the outcome of the EGM to vote on the proposed delisting on July 8.
($1 = 1.2926 Singapore dollars)
(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee and Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; editing by David Evans)
