(Jan 24): Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp’s (OCBC) chief executive officer made a fresh effort to win over key shareholders of a Singapore insurer that the bank has been trying to take full control of for over two decades.
Helen Wong earlier this month met with Wong Hong Sun and his brother Hong Yen, as well as representatives of Lee Thor Seng and his family, who are long-time shareholders of Great Eastern Holdings Ltd with a combined 3% stake, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The CEO, who isn’t related to the Wong brothers, tried to persuade them to support OCBC’s attempt to buy up all the shares it doesn’t own in Great Eastern, the people said, asking not be identified discussing private information.
OCBC last year made a S$1.4 billion (US$1 billion or RM4.6 billion) bid to take full control of the 116-year-old insurer, its third attempt to do so since 2004. The bank held almost 94% of Great Eastern after the takeover offer closed in July. That ownership level wasn’t sufficient for the insurer to delist, or for OCBC to compulsorily acquire the rest of its shares.
The latest meetings signal that Singapore’s second-largest lender may still be exploring ways to secure full control of the company. OCBC can make a revised offer six months after the close of the previous offer, under the city state’s takeover code.
“Any actions that we take will always be guided by the interests of OCBC and our shareholders,” the bank’s spokesperson said in response to queries from Bloomberg News, declining to comment on any meeting. Colin Lee, one of Lee Thor Seng’s sons, did not reply to an email and a call to his office seeking comment. Wong Hong Sun declined to comment.
Great Eastern shares have been suspended for the past six months because the proportion of the company’s shares held by the public has dropped to below 10%. The insurer has until this Friday to comply with the stock exchange’s free-float requirements. OCBC has said it doesn’t intend to take any steps to maintain Great Eastern’s listing status.
OCBC’s cash offer of S$25.60 a share was well above where Great Eastern was trading in the months before last year’s takeover bid was announced. But some shareholders have said the price reflects a 30% discount to the company’s embedded value, a metric that’s been used to value other insurers.
The insurer had a market capitalisation of S$12.2 billion before its shares stopped trading, and it reported an S$17.32 billion embedded value in its 2023 annual report.
By that measure, it is half the valuation the bank used in its previous attempts to take full ownership of the company. Earlier this month, Palliser Capital, a London-based shareholder, called the Great Eastern takeover bid “gravely unfair” for shareholders.
The Wongs and the Lees are among Singapore’s moneyed clans. The Wong brothers’ grandfather, Wong Siew Qui, was the chairman of Great Eastern Life Assurance Co from 1951 to 1969. The siblings own a total of 4.8 million shares, or a 1.01% stake in the listed company, according to Great Eastern’s 2023 annual report.
Three companies controlled by Lee and his sons, who are members of the clan that founded OCBC, own about 2% of the insurer, the annual report showed.
Great Eastern was founded in 1908, and is one of the largest insurers in Singapore and Malaysia. It became a subsidiary of OCBC in 2004, and reported total assets of S$109 billion at the end of 2023.
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