The Malaysian government’s investment arm, Khazanah Nasional Bhd, said on Wednesday it has managed to garner 5% or 15.66 million shares of 313 million shares of Singapore-based Parkway Holdings it needs to buy for its partial takeover offer to be termed successful. Khazanah also said that 604,926,786 valid votes or 70% of eligible shareholders have extended their approval to its partial offer. It is finally the number of tendered shares that would decide whether the Malaysian fund’s offer stands successful.
The extended partial offer of the Malaysian fund closes on July 26. However, analysts have been expecting Khazanah to respond to the counterbid of India’s second largest corporate hospital chain Fortis Healthcare for the control of Parkway.
There were two conditions the Malaysian fund needs to meet for its offer to be termed successful, one of them being an approval of the partial offer from over 50% of shareholder. The second condition is that around 313 million Parkway shares are needed to be tendered to Khazanah.It has already fulfilled one of the conditions as it has received an aggregate of 604,926,786 valid votes from shareholders giving their approval to Kahazanah’s partial offer.
Analysts have been expecting Khazanah to return with a better price of around S$4 per share. They say it could either continue with a partial offer and a better price or match Fortis’s offer at S$3.8 per share or better that price and launch a full general offer to acquire all the remainder shares of Parkway.
Any bid above S$4 per share, analysts say can compel Fortis to rethink its options and seriously consider cashing out of Parkway.
Khazanah, the second largest shareholder in Parkway is locked in a battle with the largest shareholder Fortis Healthcare for control of the largest listed hospital chain of Asia. Khazanah has offered S$3.78 a share in cash for the 313 million Parkway shares to raise its stake to 51.5 % from 23% . Fortis, which owns 25.3 % has countered with a general offer for Parkway at S$3.80 a share.