Singapore-listed traditional Chinese medicine maker Eu Yan Sang International has received a $196 million buyout offer from key shareholders to take the firm private.
The well-known retail provider of TCM products in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong said in a notice to the Singapore Stock Exchange that the Singapore unit of Credit Suisse is managing a voluntary offer for all outstanding shares on behalf of an entity named "Righteous Crane Holding."
The offer price of S$0.60 a share equals a 17% premium to a three-month weighted average and was made by the founding Eu family, Tower Capital and Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings under the Righteous Crane entity among other investors, according to local reports.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) firms attract a wide variety of interest regionally, particularly after researcher Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize for development of the antimalarial drug artemisinin derived from traditional use.
Germany's Bayer Healthcare has also been a player in China in TCM, following its purchase of China's Dihon in 2014, which was aimed at combining TCM with its Western OTC products in a major consumer health play.
- here's the announcement