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Mermaid Marine Australia is to buy all the businesses of Jaya Holdings for SGD625m ($495.2m) following a strategic review of the Singapore company announced on 9 September last year.

Mermaid Marine Australia is to buy all the businesses of Jaya Holdings for SGD625m ($495.2m) following a strategic review of the Singapore company announced on 9 September last year.

Mermaid Marine will acquire the entire paid up capital and issued shares in all Jaya’s subsidiaries through a sale and purchase agreement. This would see Mermaid Marine taking over Jaya’s offshore vessel fleet and its two shipyards in Singapore and Batam, Indonesia.

The sale represents a price of SGD0.826 per share a 5.5% premium on the volume weighted average share price on 24 February. It represents a premium of 45% on the closing price of SGD0.57 per share on 6 September last year.

Jaya said it plans to distribute “a significant portion” of the purchase proceeds to shareholders by way of a cash dividend to announced in due course. Following the proposed sale Jaya would cease to own or operate any businesses with its assets consisting substantially of cash.

The sale is subject to an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders. Shareholders representing 52.9% of shares issued have given irrevocable undertakings and will vote in favour of the EGM resolutions unless a superior offer is made.

Jaya said in the process of its strategic review it had received interest from several parities and “engaged in extensive discussions” with them prior to selecting Mermaid Marine as the purchaser.

Mermaid Marine is headquartered in Fremantle and Australia’s largest provider of marine services to the oil and gas industries.