Stock News: OCBC offer 16 sgd per share of Great Eastern Holdings!

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp said it is making an offer to buy the remaining stock in insurance firm Great Eastern Holdings Ltd (GEH) that it does not already hold, for 16.0 sgd per share. The bank currently has an 83 pct stake in GEH and will spend 1.28 bln sgd to buy the remaining 79.8 mln GEH shares. "Over the past two years, we have seen encouraging results from the enhanced cross-selling activities of GEH and OCBC Bank, and we would like to see more value coming to OCBC Bank's shareholders," OCBC chief executive David Conner said in a statement."Therefore, we believe that increasing our stake in GEH is a logical and appropriate strategic step to take," he said. "Our proposed offer will provide an opportunity for the remaining shareholders of GEH to realise their investments for a cash consideration at a premium over the market price of GEH shares, an opportunity otherwise not available given the low liquidity of the shares," Conner said.