HNA Group Makes $1 Billion Formal Offer for Singapore Logistics Firm

   By Gaurav Raghuvanshi 
 

SINGAPORE--Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co. (HNAG.YY) has made a formal offer to buy all the shares of CWT Ltd. (C14.SG), valuing the Singapore-listed logistics and warehousing firm at about US$1 billion.

HNA is offering 2.33 Singapore dollars a share for CWT, the same price as its preliminary offer announced in May. The offer is at a 2.2% premium to its last traded price on Wednesday, CWT said in a late-night announcement to the Singapore Exchange.

HNA's offer for CWT is the latest in a series of purchases by the conglomerate, one of China's most-aggressive buyers, as it looks to expand its travel-to-property empire beyond the country's borders. HNA has spent billions of dollars in recent years to buy several financial, infrastructure and property assets. Its purchases include stakes in Deutsche Bank AG (DB) and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT).

CWT, founded in 1970 as a private arm of the Port of Singapore Authority, provides commodity logistics, freight logistics and warehousing services. It also has a division that specializes in the trading of nonferrous ores and precious metals, as well as an engineering and financial-services division. As of the end of last year, CWT Group managed about 10.3 million square feet of owned and leased warehousing space in Singapore.

HNA expects the acquisition of CWT to benefit the Singapore company from China's "Belt and Road Initiative," an ambitious infrastructure-investment plan spanning much of the globe.

Write to Gaurav Raghuvanshi at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 07, 2017 21:28 ET (01:28 GMT)

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