Raffles Education unit investing A$5.2m in Aussie developer

RAFFLES Education Corp's 75 per cent subsidiary Oriental University City Holdings (HK) is undertaking a A$5.2 million (S$5.4 million) investment in Australian real estate developer Axiom Properties, the school operator and developer announced early Friday.

Oriental University has already bought a 14.9 per cent stake in Axiom through a married deal for A$3.678 million in cash, or 6 Australian cents per share. That represents a 3.2 per cent discount to Axiom's Thursday closing price of 6.2 Australian cents.

Oriental University will subscribe for another A$1.54 million of new Axiom shares that will raise its stake to 19.9 per cent. The price of the new shares will also be 6 Australian cents per share. The subscription is expected to be completed by Nov 30.

The Axiom investment is touted as a way for Oriental University to expand its student housing business into Australia.

Raffles Education shares closed at 31 Singapore cents on Thursday.