Genting Bhd’s unconditional voluntary take-over offer to acquire all shares in subsidiary Genting Malaysia that it doesn’t already own has become an unconditional mandatory take-over offer after it crossed the threshold for shares acquired on the open market.
The company revealed via a filing that it had acquired 2.02% of issued shares via open market transactions, triggering a Malaysia Bourse requirement that states any company acquiring more than 2.0% of shares within a six-month period must launch a mandatory offer at a price not lower than the highest price paid by the bidder for any of those shares in the period. The highest price paid has not exceeded the offer price of MYR2.35, the company said.
Genting Bhd, which held 49.44% of Genting Malaysia shares before recently announcing its voluntary takeover offer, has also acquired shares as a direct result of its offer to the tune of 5.66% of outstanding shares.
As such, its current shareholding in Genting Malaysia currently stands 57.008%.
It was also revealed Thursday that the offer period to acquire outstanding shares has again been extended, this time by an extra week, from 5pm on Monday 24 November to 5pm on Monday 1 December.
Genting Bhd revealed in October that it plans to delist Genting Malaysia either by gaining statutory control, effective at 75% ownership, or compulsory acquisition should ownership reach 94.94%.
The bid is linked to the group’s desire to own a larger stake in Genting Malaysia’s Resorts World New York City should the property be granted a full commercial casino license as expected.
Aside from Resorts World New York City and Resorts World Catskills parent Empire Resorts, Genting Malaysia also controls the group’s Malaysia flagship Resorts World Genting.
As part of its moves to take full control of its Malaysia-based subsidiary, Genting Bhd this week issued medium term notes with a nominal value of MYR900 million (US$216 million).
