SEAPOWER Group plans to take a big bite of the Southeast Asian food market through an acquisition of Singapore-listed Summa Investments (Summavest).
Seapower has been given an option to acquire a 52.4 per cent stake in Summavest at S$0.85 (about HK$4) per share.
If Seapower exercises the option to purchase 80 million Summavest shares from Xie International Holdings, an investment company of the Indonesian Soeryadjaya family, it will have to pay S$68 million.
The option will expire by the end of this year.
Seapower will have to make a public general offer to buy out the rest of the 70 million shares after the option has been exercised.
But managing director of Seapower International Holdings Francis Yuen Tin-fan said the rest of the shareholders were unlikely to accept the offer because of the low offer price, which would allow Seapower to confine its stake to 52.4 per cent rather thanbeing forced to take up all shares and privatise the company.
''Our purpose is to maintain the listing in Singapore,'' he said.