Trading in Vard to be suspended after exit offer closes on Wednesday as free float drops below 10%

TRADING in Vard Holdings shares will be suspended immediately after Fincantieri Oil & Gas's exit offer closes on Aug 8 at 5.30pm, the company announced in a pre-market filing on Wednesday.

This follows the stock's loss of free float after the percentage of its shares held in public hands fell below 10 per cent, said the shipbuilder.

As at 5pm on Aug 6, the total number of shares owned, controlled or agreed to be acquired by the offeror and parties acting or deemed to be acting in concert with it amounted to an aggregate of some 1.08 billion shares, representing about 91.91 per cent of total shareholding, said Vard.

Its shares closed unchanged at 25 Singapore cents on Tuesday before the announcement.

Vard's shareholders in July approved its delisting, which is estimated to take place about two to three weeks after the closing of Fincantieri's 25 Singapore cents per share offer.