OUE sell-down reduced by 40%, CB on hold

The controlling shareholder of Singapore-listed diversified real estate developer Overseas Union Enterprise OUE has sold a 9.2% stake in a company through a fully marketed share placement, which will result in an almost doubling of the free-float.

However, the seller -- a company controlled by OUE chairman Stephen Riady -- had to reduce the size of the offering by 40% to 18 million shares from a planned 30 million shares with an option to increase the deal to as much as 52 million shares due to insufficient demand, which was said to be at least partly a reflection of the current volatility in global stockmarkets. The latter is making investors hesitant about taking on exposure...