Securities Industry Council intervenes on F&N bid competition

TCC and OUE given Jan 20 deadline for revised offers.

"Given that neither TCC nor OUE Baytown has declared its offer final, such that either offer may be increased or otherwise revised, the Council considers that the Company’s shareholders should be provided with certainty  to make their investment decisions in respect of the competing offers," said the Securities Industry Council (SIC), Singapore's administrative agency for take-overs and mergers, in a release.

SIC said the latest time by which either offeror will be permitted to announce or make a revised offer shall be 5.30 p.m. on Sunday, 20 Jan 2013. This restriction shall not apply in the event that a third party (i.e. a party other than TCC or OUE Baytown or any person acting in concert with either party) announces a firm intention to make an offer for the F&N, or if the competitive situation still exists between the two companies which will trigger an auction procedure.

Both TCC and OUE have both announced mandatory general offers for all the shares of F&N.

The SIC added that it has intervened with a ruling, which it said has been accepted by both TCC and OUE, due to an "absence of agreement between the parties as to any alternative procedure for resolving this competitive situation, and in order to provide an orderly framework for its resolution."