SINGAPORE - Majority shareholders of consumer electronics retailer Challenger Technologies have raised their voluntary unconditional cash offer for the company to 60 cents per share to take it private.

In a bourse filing on Tuesday, the offeror, Digitech Holding, said it would raise the cash offer by 7.1 per cent, or four cents per share from the original offer price of 56 cents that it proposed on May 30.

Digitech Holding said it does not intend to revise the final offer consideration. It noted that the highest closing price of the shares in the five-year period prior to May 29 was 61 cents.

The latest offer price represents a 10.5 per cent premium over the volume-weighted average price of 54.3 cents per share for the company’s shares in the one-month period before the cash offer was made.

“The offeror is of the view that the final offer consideration reinforces the attractiveness of the clean cash exit opportunity for shareholders to realise their entire investment in the shares at a premium over the historical traded prices without incurring brokerage and other trading costs,” it said.

DigiTech Holding is the bid vehicle of a consortium formed by Challenger’s majority shareholders that collectively hold around 54.4 per cent of the company’s shares.

As at Tuesday 6pm, people acting or deemed to be acting in concert with the offeror collectively own or control 64.76 per cent of the total number of shares in Challenger.

There have been no additional acceptances of the offer, as the offer document and acceptance forms will be dispatched only between two and three weeks after the May 30 announcement.

Challenger shares were trading at 60.5 cents on Wednesday. THE BUSINESS TIMES