Parkway shareholders prefer to wait and watch on Khazanah offer

In what may offer some respite to Fortis, shareholders of Parkway Holdings are undecided over tendering their shares to Khazanah Nasional Berhad, despite an extended deadline.

In a stock exchange filing, Khazanah – the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund that mounted a bid to acquire a majority stake in Asia’s largest healthcare chain – today disclosed that it has so far received shareholders’ assurance to acquire 5 per cent of the number of shares it needs to turn the open offer successful. The extended deadline will end on Monday.

Till yesterday, Khazanah received valid acceptances from Parkway shareholders to acquire 15.6 million shares, approximately 5 per cent of the 313 million shares it requires, the company informed Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX).

Khazanah is drawing comfort from the fact that it has fulfilled the second condition for turning the open offer successful, as 50.5 per cent of the shareholders voted in favour of the open offer. When the last set of numbers was released in early July, 49.5 per cent of the shareholders had supported the bid but only 4.5 per cent had tendered their shares. This was a deterioration from the original situation, when a vast majority were in favour of Khazanah’s offer of S$3.78 a share.

Industry experts find this an indication of Parkway shareholders’ readiness to sell their shares to Khazanah, but possibly at a higher price.

Of the 604.9 million valid votes, 305 million representing 50.5 per cent approved the partial offer, while 299 million votes were against it, Integrated Healthcare, a Khazanah subsidiary that made the offer, informed SGX.

“We are very pleased that the majority of Parkway shareholders who have voted to date have chosen to approve our partial offer,” Quek Pei Lynn, director of Integrated Healthcare, said in a statement to SGX.

Khazanah had extended its open offer on July 9, after it failed to muster commitments to sell the required number of Parkway shares through the offer.