UAE: Sukoon offers to buy remaining 6.95% of shares in Ascana
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Apr 2024
Sukoon Insurance Company (Sukoon) has announced that it has obtained the necessary approvals from the regulatory authorities to submit an offer to the remaining shareholders of Arabian Scandinavian Insurance Company – Takaful (ASCANA).
Sukoon has offered to purchase up to 6.9568% or 10,713,399 of the issued and paid-up shares of ASCANA that it does not already own.
The consideration for the offer is AED1.65 ($0.45) in cash per ASCANA share. Assuming that all ASCANA shareholders accept the offer, the total value of the offer will be AED17.68m.
The offeror currently holds 93.0432% shares of the share capital of ASCANA. On that basis, the offeror is under an obligation under the Rules of Acquisition and Merger of Public Shareholding Companies to submit a tender offer to the minority shareholders of ASCANA.
ASCANA is registered in the UAE as a takaful company and its ordinary shares are listed on the Dubai Financial Market. ASCANA has an issued and paid-up share capital of AED154m divided into 154m ordinary shares with a nominal value of AED1 each.
Sukoon, a composite provider operating across all the emirates in the UAE with an operation in Oman, plans to enable ASCANA to become a reference takaful company in the UAE. It has obtained the approval of the central bank to acquire the shares of ASCANA.
Sukoon signed a share purchase agreement in 2022 to acquire a majority stake in ASCANA in excess of 93%. Sukoon said at that time that the acquisition was in line with its strategy to diversify its sources of business and consolidate its UAE and GCC presence, allowing it to enter the takaful market. In 2023, Sukoon completed the acquisition of 93.0432% of the share capital of ASCANA. In a statement then, Sukoon confirmed its intent to submit an offer to acquire the shares of the remaining shareholders of ASCANA, as soon as it received regulatory approvals. M