Accordia Golf Trust says review of proposed portfolio sale will take 2 more months

THE independent committee's review of Accordia Golf Trust's (AGT) potential sale of all its 88 golf courses to its parent will be completed on or around June 2020.

This is in light of the Covid-19 situation and taking into account factors such as whether there are any other potential investors for AGT's interests in its golf courses, the price and terms of any offer made and the finalisation of the valuation reports from the valuers, AGT's trustee-manager disclosed on Tuesday in response to the Singapore Exchange's (SGX) queries.

Last November, the trustee-manager announced that a potential buyer had submitted a non-binding proposal to buy the business trust's interests in its entire Japan-based portfolio, before revealing a month later that the suitor was Accordia Golf Co, which has a controlling stake of 28.9 per cent in the trust.

The parent is offering 63.17 billion yen (S$783 million) to buy up the assets, including the holding company's debts.

An independent committee - comprising the trustee-manager's three independent directors Khoo Kee Cheok, Chong Teck Sin and Hitoshi Kumagai - was formed in January to assess and review the proposal. Meanwhile, Daiwa Capital Markets Singapore and Ernst & Young Corporate Finance were named the trust's joint financial advisers (JFAs) to evaluate the sale proposal.

Asked by SGX why the JFAs were "taking such a long time" to complete their review, the trustee-manager on Tuesday said they are still evaluating the price and terms of the non-binding proposal, negotiating the deal terms with Accordia Golf Co's advisers and obtaining indications of interest from the market for AGT's interests in its golf courses.

The JFAs will submit their joint final recommendation to the independent committee "in due course", the trustee-manager said.

It added that their evaluation of the proposal's price and terms remains an ongoing process, because such evaluation will also need to take into account interest from other potential investors and any competing bids.

The independent committee has not finalised the portfolio's valuations with the valuers, the trustee-manager said on Tuesday.

It added that the final valuations will be disclosed to AGT unitholders together with any binding definitive agreement entered into, and the valuation reports will also be disclosed in the circular to unitholders for the divestment.

In January, SGX had noted that Accordia Golf Co's offer of 63.17 billion yen was lower than the net asset value of 65.53 billion yen indicated in AGT's results for the quarter ended Sept 30, 2019.

Units of Accordia Golf Trust fell 0.5 Singapore cent or 1 per cent to trade at 50.5 cents as at 9.15am on Wednesday.