By Chun Han Wong and P.R. Venkat
SINGAPORE--CapitaLand Ltd., Southeast Asia's largest property
developer by market value, said Monday it plans to privatize and
delist its shopping-mall unit in a deal that would cost 3.06
billion Singapore dollars (US$2.44 billion).
The Singaporean real estate group, which owns 65.3% of
CapitaMalls Asia Ltd., plans to offer S$2.22 a share to acquire all
the shares it doesn't already own in the shopping-mall developer,
it said in a regulatory disclosure to the Singapore Exchange.
"The intention of the offer is to delist [CapitaMalls Asia] and
fully integrate it into the CapitaLand Group," it said.
Trading in the unit's shares were halted before the market's
open Monday. The offer price represents a 22.9% premium to the
stock's last traded price of S$1.805 on Friday.
Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley are advising CapitaLand on the
offer, which the group plans to pay for with internal cash
resources and borrowings.
CapitaMalls Asia was listed on the Singapore Exchange in
November 2009 after a S$2.8 billion initial public offering. It has
interests in and manages 105 shopping malls in 53 cities across
Singapore, China, Malaysia, Japan and India.
CapitaLand's move to delist its mall unit comes more than a year
after the group started a restructuring process to sharpen its
focus on the China and Singapore markets.
In January 2013, when the restructuring was announced, the real
estate group said it would organize itself into four main business
units, by consolidating certain operations into CapitaLand
Singapore and CapitaLand China, while preserving CapitaMalls Asia
and serviced-apartment arm The Ascott Ltd.
As of December, China accounted for 45% of the group's total
assets of S$32.9 billion, while Singapore's share stood at 38%.
CapitaMalls Asia, the only business unit that is listed, accounted
for 34% of CapitaLand's total assets as of December.
CapitaLand last month sold its entire 39.1% stake in Australand
Property Group for about 849 million Australian dollars ($797
million), after reducing its stake in the Australian firm from
59.1% in November.
The developer said it would redeploy the sale proceeds into
China and Singapore. It had been looking to sell Australand for
more than a year.
CapitaLand, which is 40.8% owned by Singapore state-investment
firm Temasek Holdings, has a real estate portfolio mainly spanning
Asia and Europe that includes homes, offices, shopping malls and
serviced residences.
Apart from CapitaMalls Asia, the group's listed entities are
real-estate investment trusts: Ascott Residence Trust,
CapitaCommercial Trust, CapitaMall Trust, CapitaMalls Malaysia
Trust and CapitaRetail China Trust.
Last month, United Industrial Corp. launched a US$600 million
buyout offer for its 80.36%-owned property unit Singapore Land
Ltd.
Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com and P.R. Venkat
at venkat.pr@wsj.com
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