Great Eastern Holdings Ltd. is seeking to delist with an improved S$900 million ($700 million) bid from Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. for the rest of the shares it does not currently own, marking the fourth attempt by the Singapore lender to take full control.

OCBC is offering S$30.15 a share for the 6.28% of Great Eastern it doesn’t own, the city-state’s second-largest bank said in a statement Friday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report of the higher offer. The price is final and OCBC has no intention of making another bid in the foreseeable future, it said.

A successful offer would be a win for OCBC’s Chief Executive Officer Helen Wong, who took the top job in 2021. The lender has made three unsuccessful bids since 2004 to fully take over the insurer, one of the largest in Singapore and Malaysia. Even after last year’s offer, the level it secured was insufficient for a delisting or compulsory takeover. On Friday, Wong reiterated OCBC’s ambition to build an integrated financial services group that will lead the region’s wealth management industry.

OCBC’s offer is 17.8% higher than the S$25.60 a share cash offer it made in May 2024. However, it is still at a discount to Great Eastern’s 2024 embedded value of S$38.08 a share, a metric that’s been used to value other insurers and which resistant minority shareholders have taken issue with.

OCBC's Valuation of Great Eastern

By one metric, the two most recent bids reflect a lower multiple than past offers

Source: Company data

Note: Offers compared by year-end embedded value per share

Great Eastern, founded in 1908, has total assets of more than S$100 billion. The insurer’s shareholders will be able to vote on the delisting proposal, alongside another proposal to resume trading of shares via the issuance of new shares, at a meeting to be convened.

Ernst & Young LLP, the independent financial adviser to Great Eastern’s independent directors, said the offer price was “fair and reasonable,” according to a joint statement by the firms. The directors agree with EY and intend to recommend shareholders to vote for the delisting plan. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the financial adviser to OCBC on the offer, while Bank of America Corp. advised Great Eastern.