12.01.2018

Tat Hong may go private

The Ng family and Standard Chartered Private Equity (Singapore) have made a formal bid to acquire the entire share capital of publicly quoted Singapore-based crane company Tat Hong.

The two parties have formed THSC Investments which has already secured undertakings from shareholders with 59.74 percent of Tat Hong's equity and has now issued a public offering for the rest of the shares.
The move follows a proposal last November by Standard Chartered to acquire a stake in the business last November See Private equity bid for Tat Hong
The offer will become unconditional only if THSC attains at least 90 percent of Tat Hong’s shares over the next six month, which would then allow it to compulsory purchase the remaining shares and privatise the company.

There are also a number of pre-conditions to be met before the offer is formally launched. Those include obtaining approval from relevant authorities in Australia and China by July 11. The offer is worth 50 cents a share, a premium of almost 12 percent over the closing price on Thursday.

If the bid is successful the family of Tat Hong chief executive Roland Ng will control 68.8 percent of the company while Standard Chartered will hold the remaining 31.2 percent. The offer announcement cites Tat Hong's low trading volume and the compliance cost of maintaining a listed status as reasons for the offer. Adding that the move "will provide the offeror and the company with more flexibility to manage the business of the company, optimise the use of its management and resources and facilitate the implementation of any strategic alternatives and/or operational changes".

The announcement also stated the acquirers do not intend to make any major changes to Tat Hong's business or its deployment of fixed assets, at least for now.