Market rife with talks

This is the latest twist in the takeover saga ThaiBev sparked off in July when it acquired a 22-per-cent stake in F&N. This jolted Dutch brewer Heineken into making a grab for F&N’s breweries unit, Asia Pacific Breweries (APB), maker of another iconic Singaporean brand – Tiger beer.
ThaiBev, which has since raised its F&N stake to 29.1 per cent, has asked Singaporean, Malaysian and Japanese banks to submit financing proposals for a bridge loan, said Basis Point, a Reuters publication, citing banking sources.
The firm had earlier taken out a bridge loan of S$2.8 billion to buy its F&N stake. ThaiBev, controlled by billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, has paid as much as S$8.88 each for F&N shares. Under Singaporean law, it would need to pay at least this amount in a general offer.
The F&N board has accepted Heineken’s offer of S$53 per share – or S$5.4 billion – for its APB stake and is now looking to win shareholder approval for the deal on September 28.
But that voting could be thrown into disarray if ThaiBev makes a general offer for the rest of F&N before that.
A general offer would stretch ThaiBev’s resources, said DMG & Partners analyst Goh Han Peng. “But they could pledge their F&N shares as collateral for this loan. They may also do equity fund-raising further down the road.”