OUE shores up support for OUELH again by beefing its stake

Singapore

OUE on Tuesday said it has signed a share purchase agreement with Tokyo-listed Itochu Corporation to purchase about 266.6 million shares, or a 6 per cent stake, in OUE Lippo Healthcare (OUELH) for about S$27.7 million in cash, equivalent to S$0.10375 per share.

The consideration is about 2.5 times OUELH's closing price of S$0.041 on Tuesday, which may hint at another move from OUE to support OUELH, after the developer last month agreed to convert S$189.6 million of its shareholder loans to OUELH to perpetual bonds to enable the healthcare unit to reset and be better placed to tap capital markets to fund its future growth.