Chinese developer Future Land’s US$650 million privatisation bid rejected by shareholders

Chinese billionaire developer Wang Zhenhua’s HK$5.1 billion (US$650 million) bid to take his Hong Kong-listed real estate company Future Land Development private failed after shareholders rejected the buy-back offer because they believed the company is worth more.

The property company scrapped its privatisation proposal after more than 10 per cent of individual shareholders voted against it, the company said during an extraordinary general meeting Tuesday morning.

“We respect the decision by the market and shareholders,” Kenny Chan, company secretary and executive director at Future Land Development, told the media after the meeting.

Future Land’s chairman Wang announced his bid for Future Land Development in July. The buy-back offer of HK$3.30 per share cash for all the outstanding shares in the Shanghai-based developer amounted to 27 per cent of all the shares in issue.

Future Land, among China’s top 15 developers and with sales totalling 65 billion yuan in 2016, also has a listed subsidiary, Future Land Holdings, in Shanghai.

Although the HK$3.30 per share offer represented a 17 per cent premium to where the stock traded on the last business day before the privatisation announcement, some shareholders were clearly not happy with the offer, as they had valued the company much higher.

Future Land’s Hong Kong shares jumped to a record HK$4.58 on September 21 following the July announcement of the privatisation plan.