Courts Asia

Furniture and electronics retailer Courts Asia will be delisted from the Singapore Exchange Securities (SGX-ST), after losing its free float status.

In a regulatory filing by Courts on Wednesday, offeror Nojima Asia Pacific said it "does not intend to support any action or take any steps" to maintain the listing status of Courts Asia, and intends to delist it after its offer closes.

As at 5pm on Wednesday, Nojima now owns, controls or has agreed to acquire 90.07 per cent, or 471.4 million, of Courts' shares. Listing rules require Courts to ensure at least 10 per cent of all shares, excluding treasury shares, to be held by the public.

Nojima's offer of 20.5 cents in cash per Courts share remains open until 5.30pm today.

Last month, Nojima said it did not intend to revise its offer price despite independent financial adviser KPMG Corporate Finance calling it "not fair but reasonable".

Shares of Courts Asia closed flat at 20 cents apiece on Wednesday.

Oxley Holdings

Oxley Holdings has found a buyer for Chevron House, after owning the Grade-A office building in Raffles Place for about a year.

The purchase consideration is $1.025 billion, and the buyer is United States-based real estate fund AEW, The Business Times understands.

Oxley said yesterday that it had accepted an expression of interest (EOI) to acquire Chevron House. The EOI is not legally binding and is subject to the conduct of due diligence.

The building has a total net lettable area (NLA) of 261,280 sq ft - comprising 215,667 sq ft of offices over 27 floors and 45,613 sq ft of retail space on five floors. The development has unutilised gross floor area (GFA) of about 15,000 sq ft, based on earlier reports.

A slide in Oxley's corporate presentation last month shows that the plan is for the building's NLA to increase by 43 per cent to 374,165 sq ft, subject to approval from the authorities.

The $1.025 billion consideration works out to about $2,739.43 per sq ft on the increased NLA of 374,165 sq ft.

The consideration was arrived at on a "willing buyer-willing seller" basis. Chevron House has had a 99-year leasehold tenure since December 1989, leaving a balance of nearly 70 years on the lease.

Oxley completed the acquisition of Chevron House in March last year in a $660 million deal with Deka Singapore, a unit of Germany's DekaBank Group.