Takeover review: F&N going places under Thai tycoon

Returns $5.3b in just 12 months.

Thai tycoon Chareon Sirivadhanabhakdi’s takeover of Fraser & Neave in early 2013 has yielded very fruitful results, a report by OSK DMG revealed.

The report highlighted how the conglomerate’s value restructuring has gathered considerable pace. The group has embarked on two rounds of capital distribution in 12 months, which returned SGD5.3bn back to shareholders.

“F&N also spun off its property arm Fraser Centrepoint Limited (FCL) in a demerger exercise in January this year, returning to its food & beverage roots as a smaller but more focused entity,” noted OSK DMG.

Here’s more from the report:

The long-awaited demerger of the property business that the previous board alluded to, and took such a long time to execute, all happened within the last one year.

After the spin-off, FCL remains a sizable property company in its own rights, with total asset of over SGD11bn and exposure across all segments of the real estate market, both in Singapore and overseas. Last week, FCL hit the headlines again with an AUD2.6bn bid for Australand, Capitaland’s former Australian property division which was divested just 3 months ago.