SINGAPORE - CKM (Cayman) Company despatched its offer document to shareholders of United Envirotech Limited (UEL) on Thursday, moving a step closer to acquiring the Singapore-listed environmental engineering company.

CKM is a vehicle created by Chinese state owned conglomerate Citic and investment company KKR to acquire all shares of UEL, in which the two entities already have a combined 29.65 per cent stake.

First announced in November 2015, CKM is offering $1.65 apiece for UEL shares, putting the deal size at around $1.2 billion.

The offer will close at 5.30pm on April 16, and CKM will neither adjust the offer price nor extend the offer period, the company said in an announcement issued to Singapore Exchange on Thursday.

UEL is being wooed at a time when environmental and urban solution businesses are seeing robust growth.

Just last week, the company - a major membrane-based water treatment solutions provider to the Chinese market - reported an 80.6 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue to $116.1 million for its quarter ended Dec 31. This pushed net profit for the period up 37.1 per cent to $12.8 million.

With the acquisition, Citic will make UEL its flagship entity in the water and wastewater treatment business in China, the Chinese group said in the initial offer announcement last year. There is also no plan to delist UEL post acquisition, it added.

Shares of UEL closed 0.5 cent higher on Thursday at $1.65.