The Offer was announced on 15th February 2000 and was open for subscription until 17th March 2000. Valid acceptances were received for 108,684,115 New Ordinary Shares and 9,909 Convertible Bonds, being 74.61 per cent and 65.31 per cent respectively of the total number of rights issued. Of the 5,264 Convertible Bonds for which valid acceptances were not received, 864 have been purchased by Robert Fleming & Co. Limited and the remainder have been sold by Jardine Fleming in the market. The New Ordinary Shares not subscribed have been taken up by the underwriter, Jardine Strategic.
The Board decided there would be no tender for sub-underwriting because of the specialised structure of the Rights Issue and nature of the instruments offered, and because the large majority of shareholders are based outside the UK and unused to sub-underwriting of rights. The company negotiated lower underwriting fees than those payable on previous comparable transactions by Mandarin Oriental's holding company.
Depositors within The Central Depositary (Pte) Limited ("CDP") in Singapore who accepted the entitlements to New Ordinary Shares will receive statements from CDP confirming the credit of their New Ordinary Shares to their securities account. Certificates for New Ordinary Shares are expected to be despatched by post on 24th March 2000.
It is expected that the Convertible Bonds will be deposited in Euroclear and Clearstream, Luxembourg and interests credited to subscribers' accounts on 23rd March 2000.
Jardine Strategic, which held approximately 51 per cent of the ordinary shares of the Company immediately prior to the Rights Issue, has subscribed in full to its entitlement for the New Ordinary Shares and Convertible Bonds. Additionally, in its capacity as the underwriter to the balance of the New Ordinary Share Issue, Jardine Strategic has subscribed to the unsubscribed portion of the Rights Offer of New Ordinary Shares, which amounts to approximately 37 million New Ordinary Shares. This additional subscription will increase Jardine Strategic's holding of ordinary shares in Mandarin Oriental to 54.7 per cent of the issued ordinary share capital.
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group operates deluxe and first class hotels in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, London, Macau, Manila, San Francisco, Singapore and Surabaya. Under development are two deluxe properties, one in Miami (opening late 2000) and the other in New York (opening late 2003). The growth strategy of the Group is to capitalise on its luxury brand and to progress towards doubling to 10,000 rooms in major business centres and key leisure destinations worldwide.