SIA rights shares fully subscribed; Temasek to mop up bulk of MCBs

THE rights issue of shares by Singapore Airlines (SIA) has been fully subscribed, though shareholders were less keen to participate in the rights issue of mandatory convertible bonds (MCBs), application results out on Tuesday showed.

At the close of the rights issue on May 28, valid acceptances and excess applications were received for 2.13 billion rights shares, representing close to 120 per cent of the 1.78 billion rights shares available under the rights issue.

Controlling shareholder Temasek Holdings, which owns 55.5 per cent of SIA, took up its full pro-rata entitlement of 986 million rights shares.

A total of 67 million rights shares which were not validly taken up will be allotted to satisfy excess applications. SIA directors and substantial shareholders like Temasek will rank last in priority for the rounding of odd lots and the allotment of excess rights shares.

As for the rights issue of MCBs, this turned out to be under-subscribed.

Valid acceptances and excess applications were received for S$2.08 billion in principal amount of rights MCBs, representing just 59.6 per cent of the S$3.5 billion in aggregate principal amount of rights MCBs available under the rights issue.

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Of this, S$1.94 billion was attributed to Temasek's pro-rata entitlement to the rights MCBs.

Since the rights issue is fully underwritten by Temasek, the balance S$1.41 billion in principal amount of unsubscribed rights MCBs, representing 40.4 per cent of the total amount of MCBs available, will be taken up by Temasek.

The newly issued shares and MCBs will be listed on the Singapore Exchange on or about June 8 and June 9 respectively.

Trading of the shares will commence at 9 am on June 8; trading of the MCBs will start the following day, also at 9am.

SIA thanked shareholders for their support for the company through their participation in the rights issue.

"The completion of the rights issue forms an important part of the company's strategy to deal with the impact of Covid-19 on its business," SIA said.