Frasers Hospitality Trust to suspend trading on Sep 12, expected to delist on Oct 6

Payment for the scheme consideration to eligible securityholders is set to be made on or around Sep 30

Frasers Hospitality Trust (FHT) has received the court’s sanction for its proposed privatisation by way of a trust scheme, paving the way for its expected delisting on or around Oct 6 at 9 am.

Trading of FHT stapled securities is scheduled to be suspended at 9 am on Friday (Sep 12), the trust’s managers said on Thursday evening.

The record date to determine securityholders’ entitlements for the scheme is set for 5 pm on Sep 22. The scheme is then expected to become effective on Sep 23, with payment of the scheme consideration to eligible securityholders to be made on or around Sep 30.

In May, real estate giant Frasers Property proposed to buy out FHT at S$0.71 per stapled security, citing the trust’s struggle to boost distributions and growth amid economic headwinds.

The S$1.37 billion offer represented an 11 per cent premium over the trust’s net asset value – well above the average 1.04 times premium for Singapore real estate investment trust privatisations since 2020.

Investors overwhelmingly backed the deal. At the scheme meeting in August, 99.2 per cent of voting securityholders – representing 618 investors holding 321.2 million units – approved the privatisation. Just 100 securityholders with 2.6 million units voted against.

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Several parties abstained from voting, including Frasers Property’s wholly owned subsidiary making the offer, FHT’s sponsor and related parties, major securityholders and the trust’s managers.

This marks Frasers Property’s second privatisation attempt in three years. The stapled group’s previous bid in September 2022 at S$0.70 per security narrowly failed.

FHT’s stapled securities closed flat at S$0.71 on Thursday, before the announcement.