THE following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Wednesday (Jul 5):
UOL Group: UOL Group has sold Parkroyal Kitchener Hotel for $525 million to Midtown Properties.
The latter shares the same registered address as Hotel 81 Management and Worldwide Hotels, whose chairman is Choo Chong Ngen, founder of the Hotel 81 chain. His daughter, Carolyn Choo, is the group’s managing director and CEO.
The hotel, with 542 rooms, is held under UOL's hospitality unit Pan Pacific Hotels Group. Located along Kitchener Road, off Serangoon Road, the property is near Mustafa Centre and City Square Mall, which is linked to the Farrer Park MRT station on the Northeast Line.
UOL currently holds the hotel at $83 million on its books. Upon completion of the sale, UOL book a gain of $446.2 million.
Lian Beng: CONSTRUCTION and engineering company Lian Beng no longer meets the free float requirement of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), now that the percentage of its shares held by the public is less than 10 per cent, the mainboard-listed company said in a bourse filing on Tuesday (Jul 4).
This means the trading of its shares will be suspended at the close of the offer on Jul 7, 5.30 pm to take the company private.
SGX requires companies to ensure at least 10 per cent of their total number of shares be held in public hands, a rule also known as the free float requirement.
Sabana Reit: THE manager of Sabana Industrial Reit has struggled to convince investors that it is independent of ESR Group ever since it tried and failed to push through a lopsided merger with ESR-Reit in 2020.
This matter has cropped up yet again, amid a controversial proposal by activist investor Quarz Capital to internalise the manager of Sabana Reit. In its Jun 7 requisition for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to approve its internalisation proposal, Quarz said – among other things – that ESR Group’s ownership of the managers of Sabana Reit and ESR Logos Reit (formerly ESR-Reit) creates potential conflicts of interest.
Eneco Energy: A UNIT of Eneco Energy has entered into a contract with Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) to transport popular beverage brands Heineken and Tiger in Singapore, the company said in a bourse filing on Tuesday (Jul 4).
The duration of the contract between RichLand Logistics Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eneco Energy, and APB is three years, with an option to extend another two years.
It entails daily stock replenishments “fresh from the oven” to APB’s distributors islandwide, including key operating hubs, Eneco said.
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