Date: December 17, 2015
To: The SIA Board
Singapore Airlines
07-E Airline House, 25 Airline Road
Singapore 819829
Through: Mr. Goh Choon Phong,
CEO, SIA
Dear Chairman and Board Members,
I am writing to you on behalf of the long term Tiger Airways minority shareholders. I am bringing their appeal to the SIA Board, through you, on their behalf and we are putting forward their case for a revised offer.
SIAS has always encouraged long term investing in our investor education programmes since inception. We are concerned only about the long term Tiger Airways minority investors, who have stayed with the Company through thick and thin. These are the shareholders who are not satisfied and may not accept the offer. The reason for their investing in Tiger Airways, they say, is because of the fact that SIA was behind Tiger. This fact brought them comfort.
We are confident that the SIA Board also feels for them and for their loyalty. We are fully aware of the IFA report, which unfortunately did not take the long term shareholders” views. Nevertheless, we also know that without the SIA’s offer, the share price will not be where it is today and the difficulties Tiger Airways faces in the low cost carrier business space. We also fully understand and accept the rationale for SIA’s offer.
However, the question on the minds of the longstanding minority shareholders is: Can SIA do better? They feel this way because SIA was prepared to pay more for the Tiger shares to Temasek ($0.678), but is not willing to pay the same to Tiger minority to take it private now. They also point out to us that SIA paid $ 0.565 to increase it’s stake from 40% to 55.8%. This was only possible because minority shareholders had earlier granted a whitewash waiver without making a general offer. It is also to be noted that the IFA report did not take into consideration these factors.
SIAS’s role has always been to bring parties together to find a reasonable solution on a win-win basis. We appeal to you and the SIA Board to kindly extend the deadline for acceptance by two weeks in view of the holidays and consider improving SIA’s offer, taking into account their points of view expressed herein. Perhaps, a compromise taking into consideration what SIA last paid for Tiger shares. This will pacify disgruntled Tiger shareholders and help SIA achieve the 90% threshold. Please let us know your decision.
For your kind consideration.
With kind regards,
David Gerald
Founder, President & CEO
Securities Investors Association (Singapore)
