Emerging Towns & Cities Singapore raises effective interest in Yangon Golden City project

CATALIST-LISTED Emerging Towns & Cities Singapore (ETC) has proposed to acquire a 17 per cent stake in Uni Global Power (UGP) for US$11.9 million through the issuance of 179.1 million new shares at S$0.09 apiece.

The price of the new shares represents a premium of 5.9 per cent over the last closing price of S$0.085 a share.

The proposed deal was entered into on Tuesday through ETC's wholly owned subsidiary, DAS Pte Ltd.

Following the proposed deal, ETC will increase its stake in UGP to 87 per cent from the previous 70 per cent.

Currently, UGP owns a 70 per cent stake in Golden Land Real Estate Development, the developer of Golden City, a mixed-use luxury development project in the affluent Yankin township of Yangon, Myanmar.

With ETC raising its stake in UGP, the former will have increased its effective interest in Golden City to 60.9 per cent.

This will allow the group to recognise a substantial increase of 11.9 percentage points in profits attributable to shareholders going forward, ETC said in a filing with the Singapore Exchange on Wednesday.

The move will allow the group to capture the upside of the growing gross domestic product (GDP) and value of the Golden City project over the course of the year since, ETC said.

"This is further supported by the strong demand for Golden City units evidenced by its record pre-sales deposits of S$44.7 million included in the H1 2017 results. The promise of the Myanmar government passing the condominium law, slated to be drafted within the next two months, would provide the impetus for greater demand of the luxurious Golden City project," it added.

ETC was formerly known as China Titanium Ltd and later, Cedar Strategic Holdings.