The majority shareholder of Singapore-listed Amara Holdings—a consortium comprising its founding family and Dymon Asia Private Equity—received an offer on Monday (April 28) from a set of investors to privatise the hotels group at a valuation of around $400 million.
The fresh attempt at privatisation comes after a delisting plan in November 2023 fell short.
The new consortium consists of entities affiliated with two of the city-state’s oldest property companies, Hwa Hong and Wing Tai Holdings; as well as the Teo family, which started Amara just years after Singapore was founded.
The group made a voluntary conditional general offer at S$0.895 per share to privatise the hotel group at a valuation of S$514.6 million (around $400 million), representing a roughly 27% premium from its share price on Apr 23, when the company filed for a trading halt, according to a filing today.
The original Dymon-backed consortium has given an irrevocable undertaking to tender its shares 76.23% into the proposal, the filing said. Irrevocable acceptances will lift committed support for the offer to about 90.58% of Amara’s outstanding shares, crossing the 90% threshold required for take-private acquisitions in Singapore.
Should the offer be accepted, the acceptance condition will be satisfied and the S$0.895-apiece offer will become unconditional. In that circumstance, a special purpose vehicle of Dymon’s 2022-vintage third fund, which closed at $650 million, is expected to be making an early exit from the portfolio less than two years after entering into the investment.
Private equity funds typically have a holding period of 3-5 years for their underlying assets. An exit before the period can result in a higher IRR, which takes into account the time when the capital is returned to its limited partners. Such an exit, however, can generate lower MOIC as the shorter holding period limits the potential for multiple expansion on the invested capital.
While it was unclear when the transaction involving Dymon was completed and baked into its fund, its chairman, Keith Tan, was appointed on Amara’s board of directors in March 2024, according to a public disclosure.
Dymon has also been trying to divest its holdings in recent times. Deutsche Bank was hired to work on a potential sale of Meiban, which is part of its second 2017-vintage fund, DealStreetAsia reported in February. The firm was also said to be planning for its fourth fund earlier in 2024, per DealStreetAsia at the time.
Amara Holdings is known for its eponymous hotel, located on Tanjong Pagar Road in central Singapore and is home to one of Asia’s most popular bars, Jigger & Pony.
