United Engineers (UE) said it has lost its free float and will be delisted after the close of Chinese developer Yanlord Land's mandatory conditional cash offer.

Yanlord owned, controlled or has agreed to acquire about 90.27 per cent of UE's ordinary share as of 5pm on Thursday.

That means fewer than 10 per cent of UE shares are now held by the public.

The $2.70-a-share offer remains open for acceptances until 5.30pm on Monday.

The Singapore Exchange will suspend trading of UE shares at the offer's close.

UE ordinary shareholders who may not want to hold shares in an unlisted company should consider accepting the offer or exercising their rights to require Yanlord to buy their shares at the offer price, UE said yesterday.

Yanlord had said on Dec 16 that it intended to exercise its rights of compulsory acquisition.

It also announced on the same day that it would delist UE, a move that reverses its initial proposal in October to keep it public.

Yanlord had launched a mandatory offer for UE in late October at $2.60 a share, after buying out the consortium partners, Perennial and Heng Yue, with whom it had made an earlier joint bid for UE in 2017.

It later raised the offer to $2.70 a share, which valued UE at $1.72 billion.

UE shares closed flat at $2.69 yesterday, while Yanlord stock was up 0.8 per cent at $1.20.