No major owner: Aberdeen's stake does not make it a substantial shareholder, says OCBC
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC), Singapore's smallest bank, said yesterday that fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management now held a stake of just over 5 per cent in the bank, but that did not make it a substantial shareholder. The bank said in a statement that the Monetary Authority of Singapore had also allowed Aberdeen's Asian arm and its subsidiaries to hold up to 10 per cent of the bank's issued ordinary shares, provided that the shares on which they are able to exercise voting rights do not exceed 5 per cent.
OCBC said Aberdeen had a stake of 5.025 per cent. The price and timing of the acquisition were not released, but at current market levels the stake would be worth S$1.35 billion.
A separate statement from Aberdeen said the fund manager had voting rights on only 3.24 per cent of the shares. The share purchase does not make the fund manager a substantial shareholder in the bank, OCBC said.
Under Singapore banking rules, investors need to seek permission of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country's central bank, to buy 5 per cent or more of the shares in its three listed banks - DBS Group Holdings, United Overseas Bank and OCBC.
The rule is aimed at preventing a hostile takeover of Singapore's banking industry. Bank mergers in 2001 cut the number of lenders to three from five.
An analyst at a foreign brokerage house said the central bank may allow fund managers to take a stake of 5 per cent or more in the company, but was unlikely to allow a 'strategic investor' such as another banking group to buy shares of Singapore's three banks. -- Reuters
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