Cuscaden Peak bags AU regulatory approval of SPH acquisition scheme

It also waived its right to walk away from potential material adverse effects.

Cuscaden Peak, a consortium that aims to acquire the media assets of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), has announced the approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board in Australia of its plans.

This followed its receipt of regulatory approvals from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Info-Communications Media Development Authority.

Cuscaden also announced in a bourse statement that it has waived the Material Adverse Effect (MAE) condition, which would give it the right to walk away from the transaction upon such occurrence, under the implementation of its agreement with SPH.

“Our decision to waive the MAE provision also demonstrates our strong commitment to working with SPH to bring the Cuscaden Scheme for the SPH Shareholders to vote on as soon as we are allowed to,” said Christopher Lim, Cuscaden spokesperson and executive director of Hotel Properties Limited (HPL).

Cuscaden added that the waiver would give it a higher transaction certainty compared to the offer of Keppel Corporation, its rival in its acquisition of SPH’s media assets. Keppel had earlier waived its walk-away rights under the MAE clause.

The Cuscaden Peak consortium is made up of HPL-owned Tiger Stars, CapitaLand subsidiary Adenium, and Mapletree subsidiary Mapletree Fortress. Mapletree is an independently managed portfolio company of Temasek Holdings.