KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 12): Old Town Bhd jumped 10.07% at the opening bell today after it received a pre-conditional general offer for its shares at RM3.18 apiece from global coffee maker Jacobs Douwe Egberts BV (JDE).

At 9am, OldTown rose 29 sen to RM3.17 with 166,000 shares traded.

Oldtown said its shareholders, holding a total stake of 51.45% in the group, have provided irrevocably, undertakings to accept the cash offer, made through the Netherlands-based firm’s indirect wholly-owned unit Jacobs Douwe Egberts Holdings Asia NL BV (JDE Asia).

The shareholders are Old Town International Sdn Bhd (42.58%), Oldtown’s managing director Lee Siew Heng (1.34%) and Mawer Investment Management Ltd (7.52%).

Oldtown said the offer price is equivalent to a 10.42% premium to its last closing price of RM2.88 on Thursday (Dec 7), and valued the restaurant chain operator at RM1.47 billion.

Currently, JDE Asia does not own any shares in Oldtown, and the offer will only be made if and when all pre-conditions are satisfied on or before Aug 11, 2018. The fulfilment does not amount to a firm intention for JDE Asia to make the offer.

The pre-conditions include JDE Asia’s filing being approved by the Competition Commission of Singapore to make the offer.

Should the offer materialise, Oldtown said JDE Asia does not intend to maintain the group’s listing status for greater control and management flexibility in the implementation of any strategic initiative and operational change.

Oldtown said the offer presents shareholders with a clean cash exit opportunity to realise their entire investment in its shares at a premium over the prevailing trading prices, without incurring brokerage and other trading costs.