Presently, and mindful of the 10% free-float rule, investors in GEH are concerned that the purchase price on June 19 is at a significant discount to GEH’s embedded value of $37.81 per share in FY2022. This, in turn is 2% lower than FY2021’s $38.57.
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp announced that it bought 2.3 million shares of Great Eastern Holdings (SGX:G07
) for $16.99 apiece. The tranche cost $39.9 million. The purchase in the market takes OCBC (SGX:O39) ’s stake in GEH from 87.9% to 88.4%. Market observers have indicated that the sellers are likely to be offspring of old-time shareholders, or as one investor put it “inherited old monies”. In effect, the children of a late Malaysian shareholder who do not reside in Singapore decided to sell their shares in a bloc.
After Citibank and HSBC nominees, the largest shareholders of GEH are the grandchildren of S.Q. Wong, the legendary former chairman of Overseas Assurance Company. Wong’s business interests were wide and varied. According to ISEAS Library, Wong's first investments were in mining and real estate, but soon expanded to include rubber, banking and insurance. Of course, Wong’s name was most closely associated with the Great Eastern life Assurance Company, the Overseas Assurance Company and OCBC. He sat on the boards of these companies, as well as the Kempas Rubber Company and Kuchai Tin Berhad until his 80s.
