MVN Asset Management increases stake in Vard Holdings

MVN Asset Management has acquired another 317,900 shares of Vard Holdings at S$0.27 apiece, boosting its stake in the Singapore-listed yard group to 6.0388 per cent.

In a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Thursday morning, Vard said that the transaction took place on Wednesday.

This comes after MVN bought 806,000 shares of Vard on Wednesday.

MVN first emerged as a significant shareholder in Vard on Jan 18 after buying over 1.19 million shares, lifting its stake then to 5.0188 per cent.

This fuelled speculation that the London-based asset management outfit could be interested either in driving up Italian shipbuilding group Fincantieri's offer for Vard or blocking the Italian group from delisting its yard subsidiary.

Fincantieri, which owned 55.62 per cent of Vard, was set on delisting its Singapore-listed subsidiary with an offer of S$0.24 per share.

In late January, investor watchdog Securities Investors Association (Singapore) or SIAS called on Fincantieri to revise its S$0.24 per share offer.

This came as the offer was lower than Vard's net asset value per share, which stood at S$0.36.

But independent financial adviser KPMG has deemed the offer fair and reasonable as it is above the price that the share has traded at over the past one year.