Sime Darby's reverse takeover of Saizen REIT called off

PETALING JAYA: Sime Darby Bhd's plan for a reverse takeover of Singapore-listed Saizen Real Estate Investment Trust (Saizen REIT) has been called off.
The conglomerate told Bursa Malaysia that it is not possible to complete the transaction process by the long stop date of March 31, 2017, and thus decided not to proceed with the deal after discussions between Sime Darby Property Singapore Ltd (SDPSL) and Japan Residential Assets Manager Ltd (JRAM).
Sime Darby announced in August its plan to inject industrial assets in Australia into Saizen REIT, in a transaction that will see the group taking over the latter.
SDPSL also entered into a conditional share purchase agreement with JRAM for the acquisition of an 80% stake in JRAM for US$1 million. It came with a call option for the remaining 20% stake in JRAM two years after the completion of the deal.
The completion of the property disposals and the JRAM acquisition were interconditional.
Sime Darby closed higher 0.44% or 4 sen at RM9.14 last Friday, with some 10.24 million shares traded.