Yanlord raises cash offer for United Engineers to S$2.70 apiece from S$2.60

CHINA-BASED property developer Yanlord Land Group has increased its cash offer for United Engineers (UE) to S$2.70 per share, from the S$2.60 it offered in late October.

Yanlord has acquired 6.15 per cent of total UE ordinary shares at the new S$2.70 per share price, bringing its total ownership to 41.42 per cent of ordinary shares.

Its wholly-owned subsidiary Yanlord Investment (Singapore) had in late October offered to acquire ordinary and preference shares in UE at S$2.60 apiece in cash - the same price as that of an earlier unsuccessful takeover attempt in July 2017 by a consortium led by Perennial Real Estate and Yanlord.

The original offer valued UE at S$1.66 billion.

Yanlord will not revise the price further, but reserves the right to do so if a competitive situation arises.

The offer document and acceptance forms will be sent to shareholders on or around Nov 13.

United Engineers called for a trading halt during Tuesday's midday trading break. Before that, its shares were trading up S$0.05 or 1.9 per cent to S$2.70.