CITY DEVELOPMENTS takes majority stake in MILLENNIUM & COPTHORNE HOTELS

City Developments agreed on 7 June 2019 with the independent directors of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels on the terms of a recommended pre-conditional final cash offer for the shares it did not already hold in the London-listed hotel group. The Singapore company acted through its subsidiary Agapier Investments, and the offer, which valued the whole of the share capital at £1–10bn, was stated as final and not subject to increase. It secured irrevocable undertakings from key minority shareholders, and the independent directors, advised by Credit Suisse, intended to recommend acceptance. City Developments funded the consideration with its own cash and a credit facility. Completion depended on a pre-condition relating to New Zealand, where the group’s hotel interests required consent for the indirect acquisition of sensitive land and significant business assets, and on acceptances taking City Developments beyond half of the share capital it did not already own. Once the offer became unconditional, Millennium & Copthorne was to be delisted from the London Stock Exchange. Barclays and Merrill Lynch acted as joint financial advisers to City Developments, with Linklaters as legal counsel.