Sime Darby sells E&O stake to Tham at lower price

A bird's eye view of E&O's Seri Tanjung Pinang, Penang island's first masterplanned seafront development that is now a highly desired address.

PETALING JAYA: Sime Darby Bhd, which owns a 22.2% stake in property developer Eastern & Oriental Bhd (E&O), has agreed to sell a 10% stake at a lower price to E&O group managing director Datuk Seri Terry Tham than the price they agreed on in early June.

The conglomerate said in a stock exchange filing that SD Nominees and PSSB had agreed to revise the sale price of the stake to RM323.3mil or RM2.45 per share in E&O. The price for the convertible warrants remains at 30 sen per warrant. 

This compares to the RM2.60 per share and 30 sen per convertible warrant that they had earlier agreed on with the disposal consideration totalling RM342.2mil.

“The adjustment in the disposal consideration has taken into consideration the challenging business environment. However, the parties are keen to complete the transaction, leading to a mutually agreed outcome,” Sime Darby said. 

This would be the second tranche of shares that Tham would be acquiring back from Sime Darby. He bought 9.9% or 110 million shares in 2014 at RM2.90 per share. Sime Darby had emerged as E&O’s largest shareholder in 2011 when the conglomerate bought a 30% block of shares at close to 60% premium to the market.

Tham would re-emerge as E&O’s largest shareholder following the latest acquisition as his stake will rise to 21% while Sime Darby will hold 12.2%.