City Developments seals S$3.63 bln deal with London-listed hotelier M&C

London-listed hotel arm Millennium & Copthorne (M&C) Hotels agreed accepted about 2 billion pounds (S$3.63 billion) offer from its majority shareholder City Developments after an earlier bid was rebuffed by minority investors.

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels website

London-listed hotel arm Millennium & Copthorne (M&C) Hotels agreed accepted about 2 billion pounds (S$3.63 billion) offer from its majority shareholder City Developments after an earlier bid was rebuffed by minority investors.

City Developments (CDL) is a part of Singapore-headquarterd Hong Leong Group, headed by billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, who is also the chairman of M&C.

As per the new offer,CDL has offered 620 pence per share in cash to acquire the 34.8 percent of the hotelier that it does not already own, the companies said in a statement on Friday.

CDL's earlier offer of 552.5 pence per share faced opposition from some of M&C's smaller shareholders, who argued that the proposal undervalued the firm.

Property developer City Developments already own about 65 percent stake in M&C, which comprises over 130 hotels spread across 17 countries, including the gateway cities of London, New York, Paris, Auckland, Dubai, Beijing and Singapore.

City Developments confirmed that it intends to maintain M&C's current business model and that it has no intention to sell or repurpose any of M&C's hotels in London or in New York.

Shares in City Developments rose 1 percent to S$12.43 on the Singapore Exchange.

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