Keppel Corp appoints Evercore Asia as IFA

KEPPEL Corp has appointed Evercore Asia (Singapore) as independent financial adviser (IFA) on the partial offer by Temasek Holdings.

In a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Monday night, Keppel said: "In view of the scale and diversity of the group's businesses, the company has decided to appoint the IFA today, even though the pre-conditions have not been satisfied and/or waived by the offeror yet, so as to ensure the IFA would have sufficient time to carry out its review."

In October last year, Temasek announced that it would be making a voluntary pre-conditional partial offer of S$7.35 a share to acquire an additional 30.55 per cent stake in Keppel.  If successful, the offer will lift Temasek's stake in Keppel to 51 per cent. The offer price represented a premium of about 26 per cent over the last traded price of S$5.84, and a premium of about 21 per cent over the volume-weighted average price of S$6.07.

Subject to the partial offer being made, a circular containing the advice of the IFA and the recommendation of the independent directors will be sent to shareholders within 14 days of the date of despatch of the formal offer document. The formal offer will not be made unless the pre-conditions are satisfied or waived at the discretion of the offeror by Oct 21, 2020.

Shares in Keppel closed at S$5.83 on Monday, down 15 cents or 2.5 per cent.