Frasers Hospitality Trust (FHT) will finally privatise after its unitholders approved the trust’s scheme of arrangement to delist.

At its extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Aug 15, stapled securityholders holding 321.2 million units in FHT or 99.21% of the trust's units, voted “for” the proposed scheme, while 0.79% voted “against”.

This is in contrast to the first privatisation attempt in September 2022, where unitholders holding 74.88% of units in FHT voted “for” the scheme, missing the 75% mark by just 0.12 percentage points.

Eric Gan, CEO of FHT’s managers, previously stressed that it would make sense for investors to accept the privatisation offer given that the offer is at 1.11 times to P/NAV, which is among the highest P/NAV premiums for an S-REIT privatisation.

On May 14, FHT and its sponsor, Frasers Property Limited (FPL), jointly announced that FPL was seeking to take FHT private at 71 cents per share.

Gan, in an interview with The Edge Singapore, said the scheme is a “very good deal” given that the premium compares favourably with the benchmarks the trust had measured, as well as the heightened uncertainty ahead.

FHT’s independent financial adviser (IFA), Deloitte & Touche, also deemed the scheme to be “fair and reasonable”. FHT’s independent directors also recommended unitholders to “vote in favour” of the scheme resolution at the EGM.

“We are grateful for the support of our stapled securityholders. As the managers of FHT, it has been our objective to maximise and realise value for our stapled securityholders," said Gan in an Aug 15 release. "We thank our stapled securityholders for approving the scheme resolution today. We will now focus on taking the necessary steps to complete the transaction so that stapled securityholders can receive their funds in a timely manner."

Units in FHT and FPL closed at 70.5 cents and 96 cents, respectively; the companies have called for a trading halt this morning.