Great Eastern up 2.7%, hits highest price since trading resumption during market hours

Insurer’s shares were suspended in July 2024 after its free float fell under 10% following a failed takeover bid by its parent OCBC

Great Eastern sharesrose by close to 4 per centin intra-day trade on Tuesday (Sep 16), less than a month after trading resumed following a year-long pause.

At 1.42 pm, they climbed to S$15.90, the highest price seen since the insurer resumed trading on Aug 21. This was 3.9 per cent or S$0.59 above the S$15.31 closing price on Monday, and around 306,000 shares had changed hands.

The shares eventually retreated to close the day at S$15.73 – still up by 2.7 per cent or S$0.42, with some 547,100 shares transacted.

Shares of the insurer were suspended on Jul 15, 2024, after its free float fell below 10 per cent following a failed takeover bid by its parent OCBC.

Great Eastern shares had closed at S$25.80 before the suspension.

Failed takeover bid

On May 10, 2024, OCBC made a S$1.4 billion voluntary unconditional general offer for an 11.56 per cent stake in Great Eastern which it did not own, with the aim to delist it.

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The S$25.60 per share offer price was a 36.9 per cent premium over the insurer’s last traded price of S$18.70 prior to the offer announcement, but a 30 per cent discount to its embedded value per share of S$36.59 as at Dec 31, 2023.

On Jun 14, 2024, the independent financial adviser (IFA) to the deal, EY Corporate Finance, said that the offer was “not fair, but reasonable”.

On Jun 6, 2025, OCBC revised its offer to S$30.15 per share for the 6.28 per cent stake in Great Eastern it did not own. This time, the IFA deemed the offer fair and reasonable, but the offer fell through after failing to receive sufficient shareholder approval at the insurer’s Jul 8 extraordinary general meeting.

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To restore Great Eastern’s free float, the insurer proposed a one-for-one bonus issue of shares that would lift the percentage of shares held in public hands above the 10 per cent minimum threshold.

After the one-for-one bonus issue, shareholders who previously held 1,000 shares would own 2,000 shares.