PROPERTY tycoon Gordon Tang and his wife Celine have failed to take over Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit), as their shareholding fell short of the 50 per cent threshold as at the offer closing date.
As at 5.30 pm on Friday (Feb 7), the total number of units owned, controlled, or agreed to be acquired by their investment holding company, Aelios, amounted to about 1.1 billion – or 37.4 per cent of the total issued units.
All offer units tendered in acceptance of the offer will be returned to unitholders, said the offer’s joint financial advisers, UOB and DBS, in a bourse filing after the market closed on Friday.
Among the 1.1 billion final units owned by Aelios, about 57.4 million units – or 2 per cent of the Reit’s total units – were valid acceptances of the offer.
Aelios was formed by Tang and his wife as a vehicle for their mandatory conditional cash offer to acquire all of Suntec Reit’s units.
The offer was first made at S$1.16 apiece on Dec 5, 2024, and later raised to S$1.19 per unit. The offer closing date was postponed twice.
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Prior to the offer, Aelios was deemed to have a 29.3 per cent stake in Suntec Reit. The offer was triggered after Aelios acquired 62.5 million units on Dec 5 by way of on-market transactions at S$1.16 apiece, bringing its shareholding to 31.5 per cent.
The investment holding company said that the offer was made solely to comply with Rule 14.1 of the Take-over Code, which stipulates that any entity controlling more than 30 per cent of a Reit must make a mandatory general offer to acquire its remaining units.
Tang and wife’s stake in Suntec Reit stands at 35.5 per cent, or about one billion units, after returning the offer securities to the unitholders who had accepted the offer.
Units of Suntec Reit closed Friday flat at S$1.17, before the announcement.
