KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 5): MCT Bhd has received notice of an unconditional take-over offer at 88 sen per share from Philippine-listed Ayala Land Inc, after the latter raised its stake in MCT to 50.19%.

This came after the share purchase agreement for the stake buy became unconditional today following the receipt of a waiver from Bursa Malaysia, MCT said in a stock exchange filing.

As such, Ayala, which is undertaking the takeover via its wholly-owned unit Regent Wise Investments LTd (RWIL), is obliged to extend the takeover offer.

On Tuesday, MCT said it had received a letter of notification from RWIL that it had entered into a conditional SPA with MCT’s non-executive director Tan Sri Goh Ming Choon to acquire a 17.24% stake in MCT for RM202.5 million in cash, or 88 sen per share, raising RWIL's stake to 50.19% from 32.95%.

The agreement was conditional upon a waiver being obtained from Bursa to allow for 51% of the cash consideration to be settled in tranches to Goh.

Ayala Land said then that the increase in ownership of MCT would provide it with greater opportunity to take advantage of the growth potential and long-term prospects of the real estate sector in Malaysia and will affirm Ayala Land as a key player in the Asean property sector.

Meanwhile, MCT's filing said an independent adviser will be appointed to advise the board and the holders of the offer shares in relation to Ayala's now mandatory offer.

MCT shares closed up 0.5 sen or 0.59% higher today at 84.5 sen, bringing it a market capitalisation of RM1.13 billion.