SIA still short of Tiger takeover threshold

ONE likely reason Singapore Airlines (SIA) decided to extend the deadline for its S$453 million Tiger Airways takeover offer was that SIA was still nowhere near its goal when the offer would have originally expired.

SIA, which already owned 55.73 per cent of Tiger when it made the S$0.41 per share offer, had only garnered an extra 18.76 per cent worth of valid acceptances at the end of Monday, it said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Tuesday morning.

That brought SIA's stake plus valid acceptances up to just 74.5 per cent, including shares controlled by SIA's concert parties.

The offer was originally going to close on Monday, Dec 28, but SIA said at about 4.30pm that day that it would extend the deadline to 5.30pm on Jan 8, 2016.

The takeover is conditional on SIA owning more than 90 per cent of Tiger by the close of the offer.