Keppel shares fall as much as 4.6% on M1-Simba deal delay

[SINGAPORE] Shares of Keppel fell on Friday (Mar 27) after overnight news of a mutually agreed extension of the long-stop date for the proposed M1 deal.

The counter fell as much as 4.6 per cent to S$11.70 in early trading, erasing S$0.57 a share, as investors reacted negatively to the deal’s delay. The counter later pared some of the losses to be 3.3 per cent lower at 9.30 am.

Keppel in August last year announced plans to sell M1’s telco business to mobile network operator Simba for S$1.4 billion in an all-cash deal.

M1, Simba and other relevant parties then submitted a consolidation application to the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore on Sep 26, said Keppel.

Without the Thursday extension to May 21, the sale and purchase agreement would have been terminated and ceased to have effect if certain conditions were not fulfilled and waived before the long-stop date of Mar 26.