HONG KONG- After four months of fierce bidding between two rival Asian tycoons, a multibillion dollar battle for control of the Singapore conglomerate Fraser & Neave appears to have reached its denouement.
A Monday evening bidding deadline that had been set by Singapore’s takeovers regulator came and went â€" meaning the victor will probably be T.C.C. Assets, controlled by the Thai Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, whose sweetened offer on Friday of 9.55 Singapore dollars per share valued Fraser & Neave at 13.76 billion dollars, or $11.2 billion.
That apparently was enough to chase away a counteroffer by the rival bidder, Overseas Union Enterprise â€" which is part of the Indonesian billionaire Mochtar Riady’s Lippo Group and is led by Mr. Riady’s son Stephen. O.U.E. had entered the contest for Fraser & Neave in November, when it bid 9.08 dollars per share in a deal worth 13.08 billion dollars, or $10.6 billion.
Under the terms of the auction process, designed to remove uncertaint for shareholders, that was mandated last week by Singapore’s Securities Industry Council, the takeovers regulator, O.U.E. had until 6 p.m. on Monday to submit an increased offer.
Had it done so, T.C.C. would have had another 24 hours to counter, and the auction process would have continued in this manner until one of the parties failed to submit a counterbid.
On Monday evening shortly after the deadline had lapsed, a spokeswoman for O.U.E. declined to immediately comment.
Fraser & Neave, established in 1883 to sell carbonated drinks in Southeast Asia, today owns businesses that include beverages, shopping malls and serviced apartments. In September, the company agreed to sell its controlling stake in Asia Pacific Breweries, maker of Tiger Beer, to Heineken in a deal worth $4.6 billion.
T.C.C. already owned a 30 percent stake! in Fraser & Neave, and in September made an initial takeover bid for the company at 8.88 Singapore dollars per share. Since then T.C.C. has boosted its stake to 40 percent. The Thai firm’s sweetened bid on Friday represented a 5.2 percent premium to the offer submitted by O.U.E. in November.
The passing of the Monday deadline without a counterbid from O.U.E. means shareholders are likely to favor the higher offer from T.C.C. when they eventually vote on the deal. A vote has yet to be scheduled.
Investors in Fraser & Neave have been bullish on the prospect of a bidding war for the last few months. On Monday, an hour before the takeover regulator’s deadline for the announcement of final bids, the stock closed at a record high of 9.74 dollars. That was up 1.7 percent from the closing price Friday and above any of the takeover bids that had been announced up to the end of the trading day.
O.U.E. is being advised by Credit Suisse, Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit and C.I.M.B. of Malaysia. The financial advisers to T.C.C. are the United Overseas Bank, D.B.S. of Singapore and Morgan Stanley.
