Singapore's City Developments offers to buy remaining M&C stake

(Reuters) - Singapore's City Developments (CTDM.SI) has offered to buy the remaining shares of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC.L) (M&C) it did not own in a deal that values the UK-listed hotels group at about 1.8 billion pounds.

Under the offer, M&C shareholders would receive 552.5 pence in cash for each share, a premium of about 21.4 percent to M&C's closing share price on Friday.

M&C's shares were up 21 percent at 548.5 pence in early trading on the London Stock Exchange on Monday.

The move would bring the operator of the Millennium, Grand Millennium, Copthorne and Kingsgate hotels back into the fold of Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng's property empire.

CDL is part of Singapore-headquartered Hong Leong Group, headed by Kwek Leng Beng, and indirectly held shares representing a 65.2 percent stake in M&C as of Oct. 9. CDL reduced its stake and listed M&C on the London Stock Exchange in 1996.

CDL said the proposed offer would see M&C shareholders get 545 pence per share in cash and a 7.5 pence per share special dividend.

The group said it would maintain M&C's business model and did not intend to sell any of M&C's hotels in London or New York.

M&C independent directors consider the financial terms to be fair and reasonable, they said in the joint statement issued on Monday.

Deutsche Bank and HSBC Bank are acting as financial advisers to CDL, while Credit Suisse is acting for M&C's independent directors.

Last week, CDL and its joint venture partner said they would buy a freehold residential site on Singapore's east coast for S$906.7 million ($667 million).

M&C in August reported stronger demand at its hotels in London and Singapore.

(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru and Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely)