New bid values firm at $1.1b; block trade raises stake to above 50%
By WEE LI-EN
NAUTICAL Offshore Services (NOS), which is owned by buyout fund adviser Affinity Group, has bought more shares in shipping company Jaya Holdings to acquire control, and has raised its offer price on an ex-dividend basis by 12 per cent to $1.45, valuing the company at $1.1 billion.
Affinity announced yesterday that NOS had acquired 49.92 million shares in Jaya at $1.45 each, representing a 6.5 per cent stake, via a block trade executed through the Singapore Exchange. Affinity said: 'The revised offer price will not be further revised or increased.'
Jaya shares rose two cents to close at $1.46 yesterday with 52.6 million shares traded. The stock has risen 19 per cent this year, while the benchmark Straits Times Index rose 23 per cent.
The purchase brings NOS' overall shareholding in Jaya to some 51.5 per cent. On Oct 20, Affinity acquired a 44.3 per cent stake from a subsidiary of Sime Darby, Malaysia's second-biggest publicly traded company by sales, and five individual shareholders, some of whom are also directors of Jaya.
With the acquisition of more than half of Jaya, NOS increased its offer to $1.45 from the original cum-dividend offer price of $1.35 a share.
Merrill Lynch, the investment bank advising NOS on the purchase, said yesterday that the initial offer price of $1.35 per share was on a cum-dividend basis while the revised offer price of $1.45 is on an ex-dividend basis and should be compared with the initial ex-dividend offer price of $1.295. The revised offer of $1.45 therefore represents an increase of about 12 per cent.
Jaya's core businesses are offshore ship chartering and shipbuilding, with two shipyards in Singapore and Batam. The Singapore company's main ship chartering customers are engaged in offshore oil and gas exploration and production, marine construction, mining and general marine-related industries.
Jaya reported a 25 per cent jump in net profit to $107.3 million for the year ended June 30, on the back of an 81 per cent surge in revenue to $306.2 million.
Affinity advises and manages more than US$1 billion of funds and assets, making it one of the largest independent financial sponsors in the Asia-Pacific region for control-oriented investments. It has completed 13 transactions valued at more than US$2.5 billion since 1999 in five countries.
