As of Monday, Keppel, whose businesses include property, infrastructure and oil-rig construction, and newspaper publisher SPH had a joint 34.35% stake in M1. Both companies don’t even need top shareholder Axiata Group to tender its 28.67% stake in M1 for the deal to go through. Through their joint firm Konnectivity, Keppel and SPH have obtained a waiver from the Singapore Exchange that allows them to take M1 private without Axiata, according to a Jan 7 statement. That’s on the condition that the shareholding of the public float exceeds 90%.
(Jan 23): A buyout offer for M1 four months ago still doesn’t have the backing of a bulk of shareholders. And yet, Keppel Corp and Singapore Press Holdings have refused to budge on the initial offer price.
The second- and third-largest shareholders of M1, Singapore’s smallest mobile-services provider, said in an exchange filing on Tuesday that they won’t increase their $2.06 per share take-private offer price “under any circumstances whatsoever.” Instead, they’ve extended the closing date for the offer by two weeks to Feb 18, giving investors more time to consider tendering their shares.
