Singapore Insurer’s Holders Seeking Better Offer From OCBC
- OCBC has offered to buy the remaining 11.6% of Great Eastern
- Offer price stands at 30% discount to insurer’s embedded value
This article is for subscribers only.
A group of minority holders of Great Eastern Holdings Ltd. are resisting the S$1.4 billion ($1 billion) takeover bid from Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., opening a new front in a longstanding fight between shareholder activists and Singapore’s second-largest lender.
The price of S$25.60 per share is well above the price before the announcement, but some shareholders point to a 30% discount against Great Eastern’s embedded value, a metric that’s been used to value insurance firms elsewhere. By that measure, it is half the valuation the bank used in its last attempt to take full ownership of the company.