Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) is set to test investor support for its long-running effort to fully acquire Great Eastern Holdings, with minority shareholders scheduled to vote on a proposed delisting on Tuesday.
According to Bloomberg, the S$900 million (US$704 million) bid would allow the bank to consolidate its 93.72% stake into complete control.
The vote follows OCBC’s revised offer of S$30.15 per share, representing a 17.8% increase over its previous proposal.
Should the resolution pass, Great Eastern would be taken private after more than a century as a publicly traded company.
If shareholders reject the move, the offer will lapse and trading in Great Eastern’s shares will resume.
Great Eastern is among the largest insurers in Singapore and Malaysia, with over 16 million policyholders and more than S$100 billion in total assets.
OCBC views full ownership of the insurer as an opportunity to simplify its corporate structure and enhance capital deployment across its financial services businesses.
According to Jayden Vantarakis, head of Southeast Asia equity research at Macquarie Capital, the transaction could enable OCBC to optimise group capital management.
“The transaction is to streamline the group structure, and we also think it opens up the potential to manage group capital more efficiently,” he said, as reported by Bloomberg.
Still, he noted that full ownership is unlikely to significantly change OCBC’s financial performance, given the bank’s already dominant shareholding.
Despite the improved bid, the offer remains below Great Eastern’s embedded value of S$38.08 per share, a benchmark commonly referenced in the insurance sector. This valuation gap has been highlighted by some minority shareholders advocating for a higher price.
Great Eastern’s board has advised minority investors to accept the offer. Financial adviser EY assessed the proposal as “fair and reasonable,” according to the company.
The proposed acquisition comes as merger and acquisition (M&A) volumes in the Asia-Pacific region show greater stability than in other global markets.
Data from GlobalData indicated that overall deal activity in APAC declined by only 2% year-on-year through May 2025, a less severe drop compared to double-digit declines in Latin America and the Middle East and Africa.
In contrast to broader declines, M&A transactions in the region rose by around 4%, with India and Japan recording 7% and 23% increases respectively. Meanwhile, Singapore and Malaysia – where Great Eastern operates – saw lower levels of deal activity.
OCBC has indicated that it does not plan to launch another bid if the current offer fails.
In a recent statement, the bank said it is comfortable with its existing ownership level, even if the delisting attempt does not succeed.
Over the past 10 years, Great Eastern has contributed approximately S$700 million annually to OCBC’s net income, representing roughly 15% of the bank’s total profits.
Full integration would enable OCBC to better align its insurance and banking operations under a unified strategy.
